chang mai

well, i had a wondeful trip.

it is 4:20 in the afternoon on monday...my time (2:20 in the morning for those of you in vancouver). i am sitting in the airconditioned computer room with two of my students. i don't get picked up until 5:00pm on mondays and wednesdays. i should go do some planning, but i thought i would get this done first.

besides, i've been chit chatting with these two about some ideas. i told them this past weekend that i am expecting more from them (group two that is...not my group of course). as last day (wednesday) i heard they were teaching them how to break dance!!! i explained that IF they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, they wouldn't have the time. and that i don't want the teachers at the school to be wondering why we are here!! i actually switched up the groups today so that i could keep an eye on the other one. we'll mix it up again later.

the trip? i just wish it had been longer!! rene's assistant, tik, who accompanied us, is fun, but she isn't a wealth of information. i was bascially playing tour guide by reading the book that my cousin ryan (thanks ryan!!) gave me and then explaining the sites to the students. we got to chang mai late at night on thursday, so it was dinner and bed as we had to get up at 5:20am!!! then it was off to the highest point in thailand, doi inthanon. (doi means mountain in the northern dialect) it's part of the himalayan mountain range. so i thought that was cool. we visited a spirit house off the beaten path. it was built to house the spirit of a soldier who crashed there while doing some surveying. part of the plane lies beneath the spirit house and, as with all spirit houses, it had many offerings.

we did some trekking to see some beautiful waterfalls and then three daring students and i followed a guide up, up, up (and i mean up) to a huge cave. we were cursing the whole time. we actually attempted to find the path once ourselves, but apparently the locals were having fun with the signs and we never found it. we went a long way down a wrong path though. our spirits were dampened, but the man at the gate said that after we had lunch, we could return for free and they would give us a guide. sooo...we went. this guy was a maniac. he was wearing full army gear in the sweltering heat and just booking it!! we had trouble just keeping up. never mind the fact that we were sweating from every pour. i mean i was absolutely dripping! my shirt was soaked!!! it was rough. but worth it of course. i couldn't stop laughing once we finally got there. i am pretty sure the guide thought we were a bunch of complaining, out of shaped twits. even though he couldn't understand a word, i am certain it was not hard to tell.

on the way down the mountain, we heard drums off in the distance. apparently two different hill tribes are scattered at various places around that mountain, but as you need a full day and a guide to find the authentic ones, we didn't get to do that. one of the tribes is the "karen" tribe (pretty cool hey?). just hearing the drums was a really neat experience. i wanted to ask the guide to follow the sound but, one, he couldn't understand me anyway, and two, i nearly fainted on the way up, and it was probably best i just got back to the van and some water!! we ended up going to a more "touristy" village the following day.

after the cave we explored another waterfall. chris, jessica and i had a blast, as we were sooooooooo hot that we climbed some cliffes and lay back in the waterfalls, completely soaking ourselves. of course we all ended up with some funny looking black bugs all over our shirts, we managed to get most of them off. mind you, in the car i found one crawling out of my shorts. ewwwww!

originally tik didn't want us to make a trip back to the house (we were staying at the principal's "summer house" in chang mai...a HUGE place on the river bank), but one look at us convinced her otherwise. i think she thought we were all a bit nutty. after a shower break we went for dinner and then to the "night bazaar". however, it was raining something fierce and not all the stalls were set up. we actually had to brave stepping through the flooded street just to get to our van after dinner. i see now the whole "rainy season" concept. i didn't buy anything at the bazaar. there really wasn't anything that tempted me. jesscia informed me that the one in bangkok is much better anyway. and, quite frankly, i was too knackered to bother bargaining.

saturday it was to see the village people and the pandas at the zoo! then off to sukothai, a great historical place. but i won't bore you with history. a little tidbit that i find interesting, though, is that this great king that started this dynasty is said to be the greatest in thai history. he even created the thai script. however, recent historians have claimed much of his greatness is, how do i say, exaggerated and that stories about this king were mere creations to give the appearance of a unified thailand to possible outside threats. as at that time the west was trying to take some land (nothing new) and that the script even was just a copy of another more ancient script. thai people, i found, don't like to talk about that though. tik thought i was mad just for mentioning it i think! look at me, stirring the pot all the way over here!!

i also managed to buy myself a necklace and a funky hand carved elephant to hang on the wall.

it's a lot cooler here today. thank goodness. it's been raining off and on all day.

i wish i could learn more thai, but i really am too exhausted after teaching others all day to sit and teach myself. perhaps before next year i will? it's a difficult language. it's tonal. not something any westerner would find easy. it's is easy in that there are no verb tenses and such, but one word can mean five different things depending simply on how you say it! there is the netural tone, low tone, high tone, rising tone and falling tone. the same word can mean "pig" or "team" for instance. no wonder all the students laugh at me when i try to pronounce their names. i've probably just said something really vulgar!

teaching today was great. there was one girl who thinks that she speaks english too well to be bothered with this whole thing, but, again, for the most part they are really happy to have us with them. we provide them with a bit more entertainment. i sat in on one of the canadian teacher's classes. it was a review class. they were simply reviewing terms for "directions" and a lot of thai was involved in the explanation of things. danny (the teacher) said that most classes are like that. a lot of repitition of vocabulary. not a lot of games. so they must be enjoying this! we're basically doing three weeks of fun (or trying to at least).

it's almost time for my ride. see ya.

odds

i am leaving for chang mai today. it is thursday morning, 7:30. it should be good fun. it will be nice to be out and about for a while. don't get me wrong i love my family here, but at times i feel a little bit like a circus show for all of their friends who are practicing english! they are all REALLY nice, but you know me, i like me space, so, yeah. especially considering i will be teaching for five days straight next week.

so...i don't have much time as i still have to pack (not surprising). i just wanted to throw some odds and ends your way.

school is hot. kids are the same everywhere. being all girls makes it easier. i wash (or rather the maids wash) my clothes every night b/c of how sweaty i manage to make them. though the temp is cooler today. i can actually tell. and it is supposed to be a couple degrees cooler in chang mai. we are all somewhat of celebrities, of course, some of the students are relishing in it more than others (perhaps overboard?).

there was rain finally yesterday. it is rainy season after all. it lasted about five minutes. lightening hit the courtyard. pretty cool.

i have a family of lizards living in my bathroom. an actual family. one baby!

i went for a thai massage yesterday. a two hour full body massage. for the most part it was great, with the exception of her pushing really hard on my stomach. that part was odd.

we went for dinner with friends last night. the woman who wanted to practice english the most sat next to me. it was a good time though. it was on the river and next door a family living in a hut on the river were bathing and brushing their teeth. kwang said "bath. thai style" this was just after i finished reading about how everything (i.e. sewage) is all flushed out into the river. i didn't say anything of course. just some info for you.

hmmm...what else. oh. i am a big green fat giant knacker. there is nothing like going shopping in thai, being a five foot nine canadian woman! the largest shoe size wouldn't fit my feet. the large and extra large shirts would not fit actoss my chest! i felt like i should be picking up people and climbing the nearest skyscraper!! however, on the plus side, i now wear a D-cup bra!! ha ha ha. i had to buy some beige ones as, again, i need them washed every day!!

okay...gotta go. love you all

a weekend getaway

the shopping agenda did not goes as planned. the "lotus" store that is a few blocks from here (that kwang and i had to take a cab to by the way because i was melting) only had a few selections and nothing in my size. rene made me feel much better today by letting me know that he is a small in canada, but an extra large here. kwang says we will have to go into bangkok, but that we will have to wait until her mother can take me (as she is not allowed to go alone). i did manage to buy some thai musci c.d.'s though.

even though my pronunciation of "sa what dee kah" is horrible (the greeting that everyone, and i mean everyone, give each other with their hand together and bowing), everyone smiles at me just for trying. we were back at the house by 12:30 and were schedule to leave at 1. welcome to thai time, we left at about 2 and headed to the family resort house in the mountains. not bad hey? on the way we stopped at the old temple and the famous elephant pagoda. don't worry, i won't go into a history lesson. boy is it deceiving sitting in an air-conditioned car. even kwang was dripping with sweat while we were touring the "old thai house," so you can only imagine what poor little me was doing!! beside the temple there was a river where it is tradition to feed the fish. you have to see the pics to see how crazy this is.

along the way to the resort we passed through many small towns. i think the one thing about having travelled a lot is that some things that would shock others sort of fall by the wayside. the poverty, the traffic, the stray dogs are really not an entirely new experience to my eyes. and anyone who has driven with me knows that i'm not entirely scared of oncoming traffic! but today WAS the first time ever that i saw dog road kill.

the family's resort house is HUGE. their friends own one next door and yesterday evening they all came over and the ten of us sat down outside and had a huge thai feast, complete with heineken! PiWea kept calling me miss canada (pi is a show of respect to one's elders) and thought it was hilarious. i think the most awkward thing is that i can tell when they are talking about me, and, as kwang is the only one who speaks much english, it is all very difficult.

on the way home today we stopped at a temple in the mountains. it was gorgeous. again, you need to see pics. Pin (an eight year old daugter of a family friend) and i decided to go off on an adventure while the others waited. we climbed a trail up the cliffs and explored some caves. i think the cutest thing is that pin was talking in thai the whole time and i'm quite sure she was saying, at least at some points "crazy canadian woman."

also on the way home, PiJai (my homestay mom) swerved over to the side of the road when something caught her eye. it was a buddhist festival in progress. all the new monks were in procession. it was very colourful and humbling. i think for me the one thing that really stands out so far is the way the religion is absolutely everywhere. each plot of land has it's own "spirit house." very small but elaborate dwellings for the area's spirit. apparently david beckam bought one and brought it to spain. but those are kwang's words, not mine.

when we got home today, kwang took me to the salon. she was setting her hair for a popular thai concert this evening and i decided to get a couple inches off. i should really just shave it, but oh well. after that it was off to the school for our welcome dinner. i got a chance to catch up with the students from canada. they are all doing well. of course the two students from n.d. have already eaten at mcdonald's, but at least they are enjoying themselves. we were all given gifts and shown around the school. it was five in the evening and i was still sweating. there is no airconditioning in the school and i have NO idea what i am going to wear!! i dread the thought. PiJai actually GAVE me a really beautiful light weight shirt the other day. i think because she feels so bad for seeing me sweltering and melting the way i am. however, the school policy on clothing is much more strict. i need to go shopping and fast.

on the way home we stopped by pijai's parents' house. i think she just wanted to show me off, b/c we only stayed for a few minutes. and here i am. i am going to have my third shower of the day and retire soon. i have to get up at 5:30. maybe at that time of day i won't even sweat as soon as i get out of the shower, but we'll see.

did i mention that i have the airconditioning set in my room to 23 degrees. can you believe that? airconditiong at 23!

well...i suppose this is long enough. i will probably babble again wednesday after my first experience of teaching for three days. on thursday we set off for chang mai for four days.

Puddles

well everyone i'm here, and i haven't yet melted away into one big puddle, but it's pretty darn close. the airplane ride was long, long, long. i only slept about two hours or so, and that was on the second flight. we got into bangkok about 2pm vancouver time, and so we has been on planes or at airports for about 24 hours. yuk. the students were great though. and man oh man does japan airline know how to fly. i don't know what we would have done if we all didn't have our own private tv with a selection of about 15 movies and 10 or so video games to play!! i watched three movies on that first flight!

when we arrived in bangkok we were all very tired and very warm. it was about 11:30pm here. we all got in line to go through passport check when jessica informed me that she did not get an "arrival" card, as she had been sleeping the whole time on the plane. so off i went in search of a card. one person misunderstood and said "you're on your way." i think he thought i was asking where i was supposed to go with the card. another lady at a desk pointed in the direction of a hall, but there was nothing there. so i continued to wander and finally decided to ask a police officer, though i felt like a tool bothering him. a man beside him offered to show me and then asked me if i was from canada and if i had andy with me. who knew!! andy's homestay family soon swarmed around me and we went to grab the students and got to fast track it through passport check. not bad hey?

i met my homestay family. the daughter, kwang, speaks english very well. the parents not so much, so much is done through her. apparently the father used to, but he has not practiced for a long long time. they actually apologised for not being able to speak english and it was at that point that i apologised for not speaking thai. i mean, imagine that! did i mention it was warm warm warm. or should i say hot hot hot! it was 28 degrees when i arrived last night, i can't imagine what it is going to get up to today. last i heard, 38 degrees!!!

it's really not a joke that i might be coming home as one big puddle in a zip lock bag. thank goodness my bedroom had airconditioning. the thai teacher called this morning and told me that the father put it in especially for me! i got up this morning around 8:30, feeling great. within two minutes in the kitchen, i was sweating from every pore!! the maid, mo, showed me all the things i needed to make coffee and then i got myself outside as quick as i could. the mother came out and put a fan on for me as well. as i sit here on the computer, there are three fans going. somehow i don't think they would be going if i weren't here! while i was sitting outside having my coffee, the thai teacher called to ask how i was and told me that my homestay family would be taking me out to the country this evening to a relative's house. shortly after that, a bangkok post newspaper, in ENGLISH, was hand delivered to the house!! they even made a "canadian" breakfast of eggs, ham, sausgae, tomatoes, toast. however that didn't stop me from having some of the mushroom soup. i also told them that i eat anything, so please don't worry. i have been assurred that tomorrow i will have a more traditional breakfast!

oh...kwang's dad works for the government, something to do with "all the thai soldiers" (though i didn't quite understand). the mom has a shop (kwang is taking me to visit it today). there is a brother who is twelve. i forget his name already. and kwang is 16. oh...and there are four maids...all of whom are wonderfully nice.

and now i am dreading leaving this room! i am going to hop in the shower. kwang is going to take me shopping for some "light" clothing. she has gone back to bed for a bit though. i will keep you all updated of course, but i mostly wanted to let everyone know that i am here and i am "melting....melting....melting" lol. love you all.