Voice Coaching and Speech Writing!

For the past two weeks before school starts, Mel and I have been tutoring some girls for the World Standards Competition that is happening next month in Chiang Mai.  Mel is helping some of my 5th and 6th graders in singing...yes, that's right. One girl sings "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele, another "Hero" by Mariah Carey, and the other "Part of Me" by Katy Perry.  Together they are all singing "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion for Mother's Day in August. (The Queen's Birthday)
 I am helping three of Mel's 3rd graders with their speeches for the speech section. They are so cute, Am, Nuey, and Mint.  Am is in 3/1, the Mini English Program, so she is in some special competition, while the other two are in 3/7 and 3/5, and I will have to choose the better one to go to the regular competition...:-( Nuey should be in 3/1 but her parents can't pay for it, so sad!
So one day Nonglak just brings me these 3 girls and says, ok write a three-minute speech for all of them for the competition. Yeah, ok, no problem...? What is the speech supposed to be about? Just about their lives, of course. So I will write a couple sentences for them and they will try to remember it and we will just drill, drill, drill until they have it memorized. It's pretty funny, they will be saying it, "My favorite food is..." and I am like, well.. what's your favorite food?? ....blank stare. They have no idea what they are saying. So I have been trying to act out and mime everything so they understand what they are supposed to be memorizing.  At first I was like, oh gosh I don't want to be doing this extra hour every morning, but I feel like I can actually see them learning. It is really really cool.  I have been working a lot on their pronunciation, "fried rice not fried lice," and to see them mentally think about it and say rice is so fulfilling.  After some of my classes, I don't feel like I have done anything to improve their English, but I feel every day that I am helping these 3 girls.  Super cheesy but true!
On Monday, we got to school and a lot of the students were dressed up pretty...interestingly and there was loud music playing.  Of course we had no idea what was going on.  Someone told us it was Thai Christmas, another said it was Thai Day, but finally we found out it was Soonthornpoo's Day. He was a Thai poet and writer and they were celebrating his birthday.  Students were dressed up as characters from his stories.  Another school from the South was also visiting so our school did our traditional Northern dances and they did their traditional Southern dances.  It was super cool!

Characters from the stories!

 My 6th graders doing some traditional Northern dancing!

 Southern and Northern Thailand coming together to dance! 

 Traditional Southern Dancers!

 My favorite student, Golf!

Mel and me at school!

This weekend we are meeting our friends Jane and Erica in Sukhothai about 5 hours away. It was the first capitol of Thailand and has ruins and sounds really fun! I can't wait! Thanks for reading, love you all!

Lampang!

On Friday after school, Mel and I headed over (on our wonderful new bikes) to the bus station, to head over to the nearby district of Lampang. It is a two hour bus ride, between Phrae and Chiang Mai, not too bad at all.  We were going to meet up with two friends from OEG, Nick and Allison.  We made reservations at the Riverside Guesthouse, which was adorable and owned by a nice Swiss woman.

Lounging at our beautiful guesthouse!

At the guesthouse, we met a couple, Henry and Chloe, English, who are traveling around the world for a year! So fun! When we met them they were on day 51, having been to India, Southern Thailand, and a couple other places.  We talked with them awhile and ended up going to a night market with them.  We met up with Allison and Nick later where I had "pizza." 555 there was broccoli, corn, and other random veggies on it, not bad just weird! Their school coordinator, Khru Pot, had driven them in and she was going to drive us all to the famous Thai Elephant Conservation Center the next day.
The TECC was so much fun! I LOVE elephants! This place is the only government-owned elephant camp and is all about conservation and science. The first ever artificially inseminated elephant was born here, aptly named AI, houses 6 of the King's white elephants in the Royal Stables. We went to watch the show and visit the hospital.  The show was so cool, they painted, played instruments and did a ton of tricks.

An elephant painting!

Finished paintings!

Dumbo!

The TECC was so much fun! I LOVE elephants! This place is the only government-owned elephant camp and is all about conservation and science. The first ever artificially inseminated elephant was born here, aptly named AI, and houses 6 of the King's white elephants in the Royal Stables. We went to watch the show and visit the hospital.  The show was so cool, they painted, played instruments and did a ton of tricks. The hospital was super sad, obviously. There was an elephant who was born with his bones all disjointed and he looked so uncomfortable :-( Another had a stump and so they had made him a prosthetic, which was pretty cool.  We didn't spend too much time there though, it was hard to see them looking like they were in pain.  We headed over to the babies, much happier! One baby was having trouble eating and stomach issues and looked super sickly :-( But there were two toddlers  and then a mom and baby who were just adorable! We bought some bananas and they were practically crawling over the railings to eat them, it was pretty cute!

Nick and Allison's coordinator was kinda over it after while though so she took us to get some food. Wouldn't you know it, we ran into another OEG person! Sarah, who lives in Lampang, was out to lunch with people from her school! What a small little world we live in.
We went back to our guesthouse, took a break and then got ready to go to the Saturday walking street.  It was pretty big and fun to stroll through Lampang.  Again, we ran into one of the OEG coordinators! Crazy!
The next day Nick and Allison's coordinator took us to the Chae Son National Park in Lampang.  It is famous for it's hot springs and waterfalls so we were pretty excited.  The tourist attraction of the hot springs is to boil an egg, so Khru Pot stopped, bought a bunch of eggs and we were off! The hot springs smelled like sulphur and rotten eggs but it was still really cool.  Walking over the rock, you could feel hot hot it was, which was 80 degrees Celsius! Crazy! I tried one of the finished eggs...it was not good. But, at least I tried it!

Boiling some eggs!

 Dipping our feet in to get some of the healing powers!

Then we decided to hike to the nearest waterfall! Everything is in km though and we are stupid Americans and don't know what that means so we were like oh shouldn't be too far right?? Wrong. It was super far and uphill the WHOLE way! It was super beautiful, but we were not really prepared for such a rigorous hike...oh well! It was an experience!

On the way back to Lampang we were exhausted and all slept the whole way back! Loooong day.  

School is going well, I have my good and bad classes.  I will leave one class saying, YES, this is what I was born to do, I LOVE this! Then, the next class will be awful and I am like, why did I come here, I can't teach, this is awful!!! Lol, but talking to other OEG people makes me feel better because they have extremely similar experiences.  Right now, since the school is a World Class Standard School, it is preparing for the World Class Standard competitions.  So guess who gets to tutor everyone? Mel is helping three girls who are going to be singing various songs, and I got roped into more speech writing! These two adorable 3rd graders! Nonglak comes up to me, with them, and says they are competing to say the speech, you write it, they will memorize, which ever is better will win and go to the competition.  I am like OMG SH! They are right there! Have some compassion woman! But, that's Thailand! 

This weekend some of our friends are coming to Phrae, we are excited! Well, got to teach some monsters...Miss you all!

Random

It has been a relatively good week! Mel and I joke that whenever we say, ok we are starting to get this whole thing down, the Universe, or Thailand, comes along and slaps us in the face. We have stopped saying that. And we have stopped trying to expect what is going to happen around here! It is too chaotic but weirdly organized...I don't know. 

On Tuesday, we arrived back at our apartment from the night market to find a birthday party for the owner of the apartment complex! There was Thai karaoke, lots of food and a ton of older people.  It's things like that, everyday!

On Monday, Teacher Eric (who is married to a Thai teacher at our school and so is the only one who gets any information around here!) let us know that Thursday would be Wai Khru day.  This is like a teacher appreciation day.  He told us that the whole morning would be reserved for it and we wouldn't have any classes, sweet! Then on Wednesday, he told us actually, 1, 2, and 3 would be in the morning and 4, 5, and 6 would be in the afternoon. Ok, that's fine too! Then today, Thursday, he tells us, now it is whatever period you have first because 1, 3, and 6 are going first and then 2, 4, and 5! Ok...no Thai teacher has told us anything yet by the way, this is all through Teacher Eric..so crazy.  They just don't think we need to know until it is happening, which I guess is ok, it can sometimes be a little stressful though.  

Sometimes, I think the Thai teachers think we are just stupid.  Nongnoot said the other day to Mel and I, "It is the start of the rainy season, that means it rains a lot and you will need an umbrella."  Yes, thank you, I didn't know how to protect myself from the water falling from the sky...

They also think we are the same person.  After the motorbike accident, they wanted to get us bikes so we wouldn't ride motorbikes anymore, 555.  Nonglak presents us with our "new" bikes one day, a couple weeks ago.  One of them is beautiful and red and brand spankin new! The other is like a child's bike that is 10 years old.  Mel is about a foot taller than me so of course she gets the new, bike and I get the older one.  We are riding them around the city, testing them out and I discover (in traffic) that the breaks on mine no longer work! Great. We are not mad, we just discuss that it is a good thing that Mel and I like each other or else we would have been fighting over the new bike and would have refused the older bike or something dramatic.  Since we do get along, we were switching off for awhile, until we were like, why are we just accepting this crap bike and one new one?? We aren't the same! So I let Nonglak know that I was thinking of buying myself a new bike because the breaks on the old one don't work and it is so small that my knees reach the handlebars.  She looked confused/worried and said, Ohhhhhhhh (typical Thai response) and let me know that it was the director's old bike and he was going to buy himself a new one, oh that's nice.  She said she would talk to the Director about buying me a new one and to bring the old one back, which I promptly did.  I had a new one in three days and now Mel and I have matching, red, new bikes! YES! 

What else, what else? 

I never really knew what an ex-pat was until coming here and meeting them in real life.  The other foreigners in Phrae are definitely ex-pats.  Mel and I are so excited, planning weekend trips, exploring Phrae, etc. They don't really do anything. They go to the same bar every day and drink and smoke for hours and don't go anywhere! You are in freakin Thailand! When the weekend is coming, we ask what they are going to be doing, nothing. hmmm, odd.

Mel and I went swimming at the Maeyom Palace Hotel this weekend, OMG I GOT SO SUNBURNED. I had sunscreen on, I didn't stay in the sun too long, and I was super careful! Burnt to a crisp. It is because of my stupid malaria pills, the side effect is sun sensitivity, as if I don't suffer enough from that already! Luckily, aloe grows around here naturally so Thai people see me all red and just hand me branches. 555 

I also don't know how we are going to go back to America and not be a big deal.  In Phrae, everyone cares about us, they want to know where we come from, where we live, where we work, how long we will stay in Thailand, have we eaten yet, do we like Thai food, when will we come back to Thailand, etc. (That is my favorite, I have been here a month and have at least 9 more to go and they want to know when I am coming back) 

Well that is enough randomness for now! We are going to Lampang this weekend.  It is about 2 hours by bus away from us, between here and Chiang Mai.  It should be relaxing :-) Miss you all!

Chiang Maiiiiii!

It was so fun. That is all I can say.
We had a three day weekend because of Buddha's birthday so a bunch of OEGers decided to meet up in Chiang Mai! We booked a hostel called Julie's Guesthouse, a backpacker's paradise, and bought our bus tickets a week early just to make sure they wouldn't sell out.  As soon as school was out on Friday, Nongnoot drove us to the bus station, thank goodness because a storm started and it would have sucked to ride our bikes.  We accidentally bought 1st class tickets instead of 2nd, so it was super comfy and they gave us snacks! Four hours later we arrived in Chiang Mai and met Bao at the bus station.  We took a song tauw (truck with seats in the flatbed, kinda like a lesser taxi) to our hostel and met up with people from some neighboring provinces! There are so many farangs in Chiang Mai!! It was crazy! We weren't the minority and the Thai people didn't stare at us or ask us weird, probing questions! It was just normal.  We were able to talk to people without using hand gestures or speaking slowwwlyy, I forgot how easy it is!
Since it was so late we all went out to dinner, and then got ready to go explore the town a little.  We went to this cool rooftop bar and talked and relaxed and it was so nice!
It was nice to hear other people's experiences.  Mel and I quickly realized that we have it pretty good in Phrae.  Two other girls, live in the province of Nan but about an hour and a half from the big city.  They are super rural, like scorpions in their room, no internet or A/C in their apartment, and they are the ONLY farangs in their town.  It was crazy to hear some of their stories!
The next day, we headed over to the Tiger Kingdom! Yes, I got to pet a tiger! They had packages so you could pet all of them or you could just pick the size you wanted, large, medium, small, and smallest.  Of course I wanted to see the smallest, but they were just born and weren't allowed to be around humans yet.  So we saw the small ones, which were pretty big! The tigers aren't drugged or anything like that, they are nocturnal, so when we were there they were pretty sleepy and not really interested in eating us.  The tiger wrangler man made me spoon with two tigers and then put one of their huge paws on my head! OMG! It was scary but so cool. At any second, I could have died! 555 I definitely want to go back and see the babies!

Then we had cheeseburgers for dinner! YUM! Now it was Saturday Walking Market time! Not to be confused with the Sunday Walking Market, totally different. They have the most beautiful things! I bought such cute stuff and cannot wait to go back.  
Now it's off to the farang bars! It was full of white people! We shared some buckets of different concoctions, danced, and had so much fun! Some of my friends from orientation took buses 12 hours long to get there so it was so nice to see them!
After sleeping in a little, we headed over to the huge temple in Chiang Mai, called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.  Doi Suthep is the mountain the Wat is on top of so this gave us really beautiful views of Chiang Mai. Since it was the Buddha's Bday celebration, there were a lot of people there bringing offerings and coming to the temple, it was really cool to watch.

For dinner that night we had MEXICAN FOOD! It wasn't like the best I have ever had, but for Thailand it was really good. I cannot wait to have more.
On Monday Mel and I had to catch our bus back to Phrae at 3:45, so we couldn't do too much.  We went to some English bookstores and all got pedicures for $3.50! It was awesome! Overall it was such a fun weekend and really nice to see our OEG friends. I can't wait to plan more weekends like this!

I received the BEST care package ever when I got home! My mom sent yummy stuff and my friend Nicole had everyone at work write on the box! It was so special :-) Love you all!!!

For now, it is back to class! Nonglak just asked me to write a speech for a student to say in front of the Minister of Education, and a wedding card for the Director of our school because he is going to a wedding tomorrow...ah the life of a farang!

Buddha's Bday!

Today was like, the greatest day! We knew that the students would be going to a Wat on Friday morning and cleaning the school in the afternoon but not much else, as usual. When we got to school all of the students had bags full of food and offerings.  After assembly, a van arrived with 18 monks from the local Wats.  They sat at the head of the assembly and said some prayers and chanted, it was really cool.  Then the monks split up, 9 and 9, and stood in lines with bowls.  The students and teachers all waited in line and put all of the food they brought in each of their bowls.  At the end the pile was HUGE!  Some of the food is for the monks but some is also for the needy, it's like a real life canned food drive.  Nanglak and Nangnoot invited us to give some of the food they brought to the monks.  They told us giving food to the monks is good luck.  Before you reach the monks in the long line of people, you take off your shoes, I love that you barely wear shoes in Thailand. After we did this, they wanted us to take a bunch of pictures. Every person who had a camera wanted the farangs in the picture, it was pretty funny.
Then, Nanglak drove us to the main famous temple in Phrae, Wat Phra Bat Ming Mueang.  The students all have to walk to the temples and different grades were at different Wats around Phrae. Nanglak took us to a restaurant first and got us some traditional Thai desserts, i liked but didn't love..and fried bananas! LOVE. Then we went to the temple! The students were already there and praying in the temple.  Mel and I were just walking around trying not to get in anybody's way when a monk walked up to us and asked us where we were from! We were so surprised! He offered to show us around and we took him up on the offer immediately! He showed us the Buddha's footprint, which is huge, and told us about the most recent head monk, who died last year.  He even took us in the temple when they were praying, it was seriously cool. He was excited because he learned English at Wat Metang, full circle!
This was such a great day, and one of the reasons why I am here, to learn about the Thai culture.  I LOVED IT! We have to go catch our bus to Chiang Mai! Love you all!