Elise's Visit!

My friend from home, Elise came to visit!  She got here on the 16 and stayed until the 24th.  Kate and I took the night bus from Phrae to Bangkok to meet her for a quick BKK weekend trip.  We got to our cute hostel around 4am and she was there waiting for us! We took some quick naps and then headed out into the chaos of Bangkok! First, we got some yummy breakfast at Au Bon Pain :-) YES! And then headed over to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the biggest in the world.  We wandered around in a sweaty, hot daze and Elise bought lots for her fam, which was great! After we covered probably 1/16 of the market we decided we were tired enough to go get some pedicures! Kate, Elise and I shuffled back on the BTS (kinda like BART but cleaner) and pampered ourselves for a bit.
Since we all didnt get much sleep the night before, we decided to take in a movie at Siam Paragon, a really nice mall.  The last Twilight just came out so why not?! Don't judge us! It was awful but it is always fun to see movies in foreign countries! I think Thailand is my favorite place to see them because everyone stands for the King's song and they play a cute video of the King. It always gives me chills and it is pretty touching.

The next day Barack Obama was coming to Thailand so we were excited to run into him at the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was pretty crowded because he was coming that day but we were determined to have Elise see it.  Kate and I had already seen it so we tried to give Elise the best tour we could and steer clear of crowds. Then we hopped on a bus and headed back to Phrae!

Elise was able to come to class with me that week and help me teach about Thanksgiving! It was so exciting for me to have her see me teach! On Tuesday, four teachers, four students and Mel, Kate, Elise and I got to head to Chiang Mai for the Northern Thailand speech competition! We were so excited to support our students and get out of class for two days! :-) We all piled into a bus and made the 4 hour journey Northwest. We got to our hotel and the teachers gave us a bonus from the Director for helping with the speeches.  It was so nice! They then drove us to the mall where we gorged on Pizza Company and then took in some Christmas decorations.  We called it an early night because we had to leave pretty early for the competition.  Nuey and Poom both did AMAZING! Their groups both had 45 competitors in it and they would take the top 3 to Bangkok. Nuey ended up getting 13th and Poom got 2nd!!! AH! So we will continue to train Poom for the Bangkok competition in February! 

After the competition we did some sightseeing and then it was back to Phrae! We had our makeshift Thanksgiving (see previous post) on Thursday and Elise was able to borrow my bike and ride around a bit. On Friday the 8 of the us and Elise headed up to Chiang Mai for the weekend! We went to the Night Bazaar and spent some money and then had a yummy dinner. The next day the girls went and got manicures and massages.  We went to the Saturday Market and wandered for awhile before heading to the airport to drop Elise off.  She was flying from Chiang Mai to BKK, then to Seoul, and finally SFO! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family! It was so weird! I still do not feel like it was Thanksgiving or that it will be Christmas soon.  With it still being so hot and being so far from my family it has never felt less like the holiday season.  My sister stayed in Boston, my Aunt had to work and stayed in Oregon, and my Mom didn't go to our family's house in Marin.

I tried to teach my students about Thanksgiving and they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, understandably.  I had them draw hand turkeys and they kept calling them chickens. No turkey in Thailand!

All of the farangs decided we would try to make it a big deal.  I went and got all of the chicken I could find from the night market.  Brandon got pumpkin veggie medley from another market, Leah got some beer, Mel, Kate Rose, and Mimi got wine, mashed potatoes from KFC, and rolls from the Big C, Amanda found some brownies and mango sticky rice and Kate made some microwave no bake chocolate thing  that was delicious! I had a friend visiting from America, Elise, who got to join in our festivities! It was pretty fun. We went around our table at the Compound (our nickname for where the other farangs live) and talked about what we were thankful for and what we usually do on Thanksgiving. It was the weirdest Thanksgiving I have ever had and I still do not feel like it was real but I will never forget it!

Our silly spread

The Gang

Hand Turkeys!

Camping!

I am not being a very good blogger but we have just been so busy!

Two weekends ago Mel, Kate, Mimi, Leah and I all decided to go camping! We met up with our friends Nick and Allison from Lampang in Chiang Mai along with some other friends and headed to the biggest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon! We had a loose plan that quickly fell apart but we had so much fun along the way!

We had to take a song tau to the base of the mountain and then another song tau to the headquarters about half way up the mountain. It was here that we realized if we went all the way to the top we would have no way of getting down and no way of getting around. Oh and all of the bungalows at the top were full :-(

So we walked to the camp site and rented some tents, sleeping bags, bed pads, and set up camp! It was very similar to camping in America except no designated camping spots and no campfires. The best part was...IT WAS COLD! It was freezing for Thai people.  They were wearing scarves, jackets you would only wear in blizzards in Minnesota and hat/masks that were all unnecessary but completely hilarious. We all put on hoodies and were so excited to feel a little cool again! We played a ton of fun games, drank, and loved our first camping experience in Thailand.

Jen, Allison, Mel, Me and Kate in front of the Mae Klang Waterfall

 Kate, Mimi and Me setting up our tents!

 around our camp "fire"

The next day when we wanted to get back down the mountain, we had to hitch a ride...We ended up standing on the side of the road with our thumbs out hoping someone would stop for us and take our huge group down.  A nice group of Thai people stopped and loaded the nine of us into the back of their truck. It was a tight squeeze but super fun. 

Definitely not allowed in the US...

 Doi Inthanon!

Sidenote: Mimi ended up getting Typhus somewhere on this weekend :-( She spent a couple nights in the hospital with 104 degree fever! All of our teachers were so nice, they had a meeting at school to set up a schedule to take care of her.  Different teachers would spend the night at the hospital with her and others would spend the day with her translating what the nurses and doctors would say.  We have no idea how or when she got it but she took some antibiotics and is better now! 

6 month-iversary!

Today, November 5, is the 6 month anniversary of me living in Thailand! Ah! Has it already been 6 months/Haven't I lived here forever?! Crazy.

Well we are almost 3 weeks into the second semester and I feel like I am at a different school!
Mel and I are obviously still here and the other two Filipino teachers, Coral and Cem, but now we  have 8 new teachers! 5 from OEG, my friend from home, and a couple randoms, 555. I have known Kate since about third grade and was so excited when she decided to come teach with me! We also have an older man Ananda from America, and Manu,  a girl from Germany, who I have know in Phrae for awhile.
The OEG people are from all over America.  Leah is from Minnesota, Mimi is from Michigan, Brandon is from Pennsylvania, Kate (a second Kate!) is from North Carolina, and Amanda is from Connecticut.  The OEGers all live about a 30 second bike ride away from Mel and me.  It is definitely a different dynamic but I think it has been a fun change.

We now have an actual department at school! Teacher Eric is in charge of all of us and we even have an English room with real desks that are REALLY nice.  The best part...it has A/C!!! It feels like I have a real job now, I'm not just playing anymore.  Kinda scary.  Because there are so many of us now, we each have a grade and some are teaching math and science.  I teach 6th grade, seeing 6/3-7 two times a week and 6/1 and 6/2 (the special/smarter kids, their words not mine!) 5 times a week! It is so different! Teacher Eric gave me the rosters of all of my classes so I am slowly learning more of the kid's names. (I have a kid named Terd, so sad :-( )  They are giving me topics to teach the students so that they will pass this huge test in February and even gave me a book to teach from sometimes.  I swear I am not in Thailand anymore.

Sunday was Parent/Teacher Day. They told us we would come to an assembly and then meet some parents.  Easy enough! I have been to so many in America, I assumed it would be similar. Poor, naive Teacha Chelsea. Oh my lord. We got there at 9 and the assembly was an hour and a half long of the Director of the school talking in Thai the whole time, while we all had no idea what was happening.  Then they made us all introduce ourselves to the parents.  The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers all had to stay until 12 and meet the parents and 4-6 had to come back at 1 and stay until 4.  When we returned it was ANOTHER assembly for the older kid's parents! AH! Longest day ever and I didn't even meet parents. We later learned that the school is 1million baht in debt because parents haven't payed their tuition and so the director was telling them all about us and showing us off and telling them what our salaries were so that the parents would pay the school. Awkwarrrd.

A cool thing was that Mel and I got the school magazine and we are all over that thing! I feel like a mini celebrity.  I feel so proud!

Happy 6 months to Thailand and me! I can't believe only 4 months are left...I don't want it to be over :-(