A Whole New World...

Sawadee kaaaaaa

As my new flat mates are dancing and singing to Disney songs on repeat, 'A Whole New World' makes me stop. I have to sit down. I need some water. I need a break.

The alcohol has gone to my head. I've been in a fish bowl world for the last 3 weeks. University has become my new world and Thailand is far behind. Think, Spongebob Squarepants, the episode where he goes into his brain and all his memories are stored in filing cabinets. Thailand is now a folder in a filing cabinet hidden underneath the millions of new names and faces and places I'm learning.

Thailand is more than a memory however. It is a different life. A different me. When I try to think of how my personality, my opinions, my whole viewpoint has been distorted and strangled and reshaped recently, it scares me. I do not know who I am anymore or what I am. Maybe this is the reason I'm studying Philosophy. Maybe I am just crazy.

I miss my Thai family. Audy and Tuttik are the without a doubt the most honest and caring people I have met. Austin, Orchid and Inter will grow up with such beautiful outlooks on life. They will learn how to love and care like no other. Audy and Tuttik are my role models and will forever be my surrogate parents.

I miss teaching. I miss 40 Thai 12 year olds shouting, "T-SHIRT" at me. I miss the looks on their faces as they finally complete a sentence. Then forget it a week later. I miss their smiles. I miss their hugs. I miss their enthusiasm. I wish I had the same enthusiasm for Plato. Maybe it's just Plato? When it starts to snow here up North, Toa will be on my mind shouting, "Teacher SNOWING!" Everyday. Every single day. No Toa, it doesn't snow in Thailand. Maybe I should send a postcard of the snow.

I miss my partners. Sally and Nicole became my sisters, my family, my life. When I sit in my room by myself I can't sleep. I miss their company. I crave constant attention now. I am currently sitting in the kitchen listening to my flat mates chat just for the noise. Silence scares me now.

I do not miss the heat. I do not miss the diet (Ok I miss green curry. I miss Nun's). I do not miss missing my family. I am glad to be home. I am loving University life and all of my new flat mates, but I do miss Thailand.

Kithung mak mak,

Taengmo

xx

#9 Novice Monks or Cheeky Monkeys?

We had been invited to help run an English Camp for Novice Monks in Nakhon Sawan weeks before and so when Friday the 31st finally arrived we were... extremely busy, exhausted and stressed.

The week prior we had just gotten home from our Thai family's after the weekend and whilst lying in bed, exhausted, we got a phone call. Thinking it was our host asking if we were still alive, I answered hesitantly. It was in fact Mr. Thor, a friend of our Thai dad's who speaks exceptional English, inviting us to help him in an English Camp the following day. "You mean tomorrow?! Uhhhh, yes sure of course. Yes we meet for lunch? Have meeting? You ask our school? Ok, Thank you. Bye." After sorting all the ins and outs, we had accepted and were being picked up that afternoon to spend the night in a hotel before an early morning the next day. 

This English Camp involved teaching 200 M1-M6 students English. Nicole, Sally and I joined Mr. Thor, an Australian named Adam, a previous PT Vol Dougie and a Thai woman who also speaks exceptional English. The morning was filled with very enthusiastic and energetic songs, actions, phrases. "Hello! Hi! Hi! Hello! Hello Hello Hello! Hi Hi Hi!" "Give me 1, Give me 2, Give me 3, Give me 4, Give me 5 - High Five!" The afternoon filled with different rotations of playing English speaking games, practising pronunciation and role plays. Come 3.30pm, we were thoroughly exhausted and yet still the day was not over. After what felt like a thousand photos with staff and students galore, the 7 of us drove back to Ubon to enjoy drinks and snacks at The Feeling - a pub, kind of. Getting to know other foreigners in the area and sharing experiences of teaching English is one of many pleasures. 

We arrived back in Muang Samsip on Wednesday morning after spending another night in a hotel in Ubon and then had to frantically pack for the following weekend in Nakhon and get organised for Dave, our PT Desk Officers visit on Thursday/Friday. Thursday night when Dave arrived we enjoyed our favourite local Isaan meal of fried chicken, sticky rice and som tam whilst we talked about the project. Friday Dave observed our lessons which according to him went very good, even though I'm still adamant it was far too rushed having missed the first 20 minutes due to a meeting. Friday evening then came where we boarded our bus to Chaiyaphum to meet the Phana Vols, Cammy and Kevin, for a good nights sleep - in a bus station. I hope you can sense my sarcasm there. Many mozzie bites later and crooked necks and backs we boarded The Tin Can. 

The Tin Can, capitalised on purpose, is what some Thai's would call a bus. I assure you however this was not a bus. This was a 5 hour journey sitting on metal floors in sweltering heat (hotter than it was outside?!) bumping at every turn and travelling at around 2mph. No joke. We were dying of heat stroke, dehydration (our water had pretty much evaporated away - OK maybe now I'm exaggerating) and to make matters worse, I had gotten a cut/bite which was happily oozing away with pus and my foot was swelling by the second. We arrived in Nakhon Sawan as piles of sweat, dirt, dust and in my case, pus with a foot the size of a football. 

Nakhon however made up for this God awful experience with it's beautiful sights! We arrived and went to the park to celebrate fellow volunteer's birthday, Hollie. We had a real life chocolate cake made by foreigners who own an oven in Nakhon and lots of Hollie's favourite snacks. One beautiful picnic later we went back to Beth and Ellie's apartment in Nakhon which is pure luxury! Tiled flooring? Actual beds? TWO western toilets?! I think I was about ready to die of shock. 

The following day we ran the English Camp for Novice Monks. The day started bright and early setting up the activities which ranged from an obstacle course to blindfolded monks being fed mouthfuls of chilli and trying to guess 'Spicy.' Nicole and I were in charge of Animals in which we painted whiskers on our faces and danced around as different animals for the day trying to get the monks to join in with our stupidity! After the camp we all dressed in traditional Chinese dresses and went to the closing parade for Chinese New Year Festival - Nakhon Sawan is the Chinese capital of Thailand meaning the parade was big and beautiful! 

And finally, after 3 days of visiting our friends and eating glorious sandwiches - yes actual bread - we boarded the bus home. We did not opt for The Tin Can option this time. We arrived back in Muang Sam Sip early Wednesday morning and whilst I would love to say we then fell into sensational deep sleeps for days on end... No, we went to school to teach the little rascals I call my students.

I guess there really is no sleep for the wicked - wickedly awesome and charitable giving up my precious time to teach English to monkeys. 

Zzz... lots of love from Thailand.

#8 Children's Day

Saturday the 11th was Children's Day in Thailand which I spent with my Thai Family in Ubon Ratchathani. My Thai family has a baby boy, 9 months old called Austin, a little girl, 6 years old called Orchid and a boy, 9 years old called Inter so as you can imagine, Children's day for them is a big deal. Children's Day is basically a Thai holiday where they celebrate their children and the big towns put on various functions for kids to enjoy, mostly for free!

Orchid and Inter enjoying the rides

First of all we went to Central Plaza which is one of the main shopping centres in Ubon. There were several little games for children to play to win free things like cinema tickets, sweets, juices and toys all around the centre. Orchid and Inter got so excited and played all the games and insisted we play them too. I think maybe because we're foreign (farang) they let us play even though we're clearly not children anymore - though some parents did give us strange looks as the 18/19 year olds playing these games meant for 12 year olds and younger... oh well.

An old Airforce plane

After this we went to the airforce which was putting on a special fair for Children's Day. There were rides for the kids, stalls selling things, airforce soldiers in uniform letting you take photos with them, an old plane you could explore and much more. Orchid and Inter got great joy out of the toy planes they bought and played with them for the rest of the day. Next we went to the zoo which had free entry because it was Children's Day. When driving our Thai mum once was saying how many laws in Thailand are like 10 years behind western laws, for example they recently introduced a law where they had to put their motorcycle lights on all the time. Well Thai zoo's are also a clear example of this; the cages the animals were kept in were so small, cramped and just in generally bad condition. Many of the animals looked sick as well with one parrot losing a lot of it's fur and a cow with a mutation - it had an extra leg hanging from it's back! It was also strange to see cats and rabbits in a zoo as in Britain we see those almost everyday. Needless the say, Inter and Orchid loved the whole day!

The cows deformed 5th leg.....

Next we drove to Phana to visit our Thai dad's family as they were having their annual 'funeral' type remembering, called to 'make merit,' of my Thai dad's brother who died in a car accident a couple years ago. This is a really nice way of remembering the dead, rather than wallowing in sadness they bring the family and friends together. Firstly some monks came and we all chanted and prayed together, and then the monks left and we all ate dinner together whilst they were sharing good memories.

Then we all drove home and after a long busy day we were so tired we fell asleep very early! Zzz...

Inter and Orchid with the Airforce Soldier

Cats in cages

Monkey's being monkeys

#7 Happy New Year!

We've had a cold couple of weeks here in Muang Samsip recently. I'm talking lows of 15 degrees, my God it was horrendous. I think that's a sign I've truly accommodated to Thai weather now, although I am still sweating it out whilst the students wear jumpers on most days. Through these past cold weeks we've had to shut all the shutters in our house, trying to keep out the cold winds - it may not be as cold as back home but it sure does feel it when the house is made to let out heat, not keep it in! We've been buried in 3 blankets, huddled in our beds and having to do jogs on the spot to bring up our body temperature before even bracing the cold showers! Even though we felt so cold and moaned a lot, Thai people must have suffered a lot worse for they were all wearing wooly hats, scarves, gloves and big coats to school (in the day it was not even that cold, more like a British Summer at 17-19 degrees) whilst we were still in lose t-shirts during the day. Maybe my British skin is just thicker... Saying all this however, Thai winter only lasted a few weeks and it's already back to sweltering degrees again - where they are still wearing thick jumpers.

Merry Christmas from M4/1

School continued over Christmas but luckily it was the end of term and instead of having to teach rowdy classes on Christmas Day, it was Sports Day! Ok, so Sports Day isn't quite like we have in the UK. Firstly, there were students everywhere doing practically nothing. They were all sitting around in groups just chilling, with the few events going on around. On Christmas Day we spent the morning slowly waking up and enjoying tea in bed. We had already sneakily opened our presents on Christmas Eve at Midnight for without any parents around we felt we could do what we wanted! As my parents are in Malaysia currently also enjoying the lack of christmas pressures, Sally and Nicole's parents were kind enough to send me presents also. I think... finally... maybe... just... I have enough chocolate. Around midday we went into school and got to cook some sticky rice with coconut with some students - yeah, like I said, Sports Day... And then the 3 of us went into Ubon to enjoy a typical over indulgent Christmas Day. We had 'The Pizza Company' pizza followed by 'McDonald's' chips followed by 'Swensen's' chocolate brownie and banana waffle sundae followed by 'Take a Break' coffee. I mean, it's not Christmas if you don't feel sick from too much food, right?

Christmas Cards made by M2/3 for me!

Friday was the last day of term and for our New Years Holiday we had booked to go to Koh Samui - 7 girls, 7 nights, 7 ghastly hangovers... Friday evening we got the overnight bus to Bangkok which was the coldest night I have ever experienced in my life. I think even if you spent the night covered in snow, it would be warmer. Ok, Thai logic; they get extremely cold in 17degrees that they wear wooly hats and big coats, yet they put the air con on on overnight buses down to 15 degrees and only give you a measly little blanket. Yeah, makes total sense. In Bangkok we spent the day in a shopping center enjoying a Nando's type meal at a place called 'Piri Piri' whilst waiting for our next night bus/ferry to Koh Samui. Ok, travellers tip... make sure taxi drivers actually look at maps you give them when asking them to take you places. Oh and insist on putting the metre on, one taxi driver just out right refused so we got out and got into another because no, we are not stupid tourists who will pay extortionate amounts Mr Rude Taxi Driver. So 20 minutes before checkout closes to get our bus, we realise we've been taken to the wrong bus station so 5 of us, with our big bags, jump into yet another taxi, all sitting on top of one another, shouting 'Laow Laow Laow' (faster faster) to get to the right bus station which oh so conveniently is in the middle of Khao San Road - not so easy to get too! So after a freezing cold night bus, running through crowds of people, carrying our big rucksacks, feeling the pressure of getting to the station on time, another long night bus and then a very very rocky catamaran ferry journey - we made it! Koh Samui was a whole world away from the remote and rural world of Muang Samsip with tourists galore and western food at every turn. It was a nice change. We enjoyed being able to soak up the rays on the beach and meet new tourists and other travellers whilst not having to worry about getting up early for work or lesson plans. For New Years Eve we went to our first Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan. The NYE Countdown Party is the biggest beach party in the entire world with 65,000 people enjoying the countdown together. I have no words to explain it, all I can say is, you need to experience a Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan once in your lifetime for it is the most insane, surreal, intense, craziest experience.

Monday we arrived back to Muang Samip and after just over a week away it feels nice to be 'home.' Currently I'm at school in the English Office waiting for my next class to start. We have just enjoyed another lunch where a group of students bring/cook us lunch and we eat it together whilst they attempt to speak English. Mostly this consists of them shyly eating whilst we ask them questions, but occasionally you get a confident student who gets a small conversation going. It's now been 4 months here in Thailand and so I'm a Quarter of the way through this year and it wouldn't be fair to say it's all been easy, but it's definitely worth it. Knowing it's only another couple of months until I get to see my parents in my holidays is helping the homesickness go away but words cannot describe how much I miss my best friends, my home, my bed, my parent's cooking and my one true love - my cat, Lizzy. Despite all this, these past 4 months have been a real adventure and I'm only excited for the next 8 months and anything and everything that could happen.

Dinner with our Thai Family

One major thank you to all my friends and family back home for the love and support through emails, letters and parcels. Lots of Love, Amy xoxo