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 :-(

Mom and Sarah's Visit!

Long time no blog :-(
This blog post has been so daunting and I have been so busy that I just keep putting it off! Alas, it is time to tell about the second half of my break!
I had a couple days in Bangkok to myself that were really nice before my Mom and Aunt Sarah got to Thailand.  I met them at the airport on Sunday around noon and we headed right to the Grand Palace! Gotta kick that jet lag! They were super hot and tired and kinda hating me for dragging them around but it really was for their own good...lol
After running through the Palace we headed over to the train station and got on a night train to Phuket! It was SO fun! We had 2nd class sleeper seats that were pretty comfy and we were able to watch the southern countryside go by.

sleeper train!

Phuket
Our resort in Phuket, the Dewa Karon Beach Resort was so fancy! We had two rooms, a kitchen, living room and really nice pool.  We took a dip, went for some food and settled in for the next couple days.
The next day we went to Kata Beach! We swam in beautiful, warm water, bought pretty beach dresses, and relaxed on the beach. Then we took a tour of Phuket city.  They took us to the big Buddha on the hill, we went to a cashew nut factory, a honey factory, old Phuket town, and saw the famous vegetarian festival going on.  It was fun but we were definitely tired in the end.

Giant Buddha!

Bee farm!

 Koh Phi Phi!

The next day we got up early and went on a boat tour to Koh Phi Phi and other beautiful islands in the Andaman! It was so pretty. We went from island to island and beach to beach and it only got prettier. The water was crystal clear and the sand was so fine.  We even got to see the "beach beach." This is the beach where "The Beach" was filmed (with Leonardo DiCaprio).  It was so fun!

Chiang Mai

Next, it was up to Chiang Mai! We took a flight so we could spend more time there. We checked it, had lunch, then back to exploring! We found a tuk-tuk driver to take us to the handicraft village in Bo Sang, about 30 minutes outside of the city.  We went to the umbrella making factory, which turned out to be really cool! We saw the villagers making the umbrellas out of bamboo and then you could get it painted. Of course, I got elephants on mine and Mom and Sarah went crazy and bought tons! Then the tuk-tuk man wanted to take us to the jewelry store in the village, we reluctantly agreed and, of course, Mom and Sarah each bought rings! They are beautiful blue topaz, but the shopping wasn't done yet! We went to the silk making factory, something Thailand is famous for.  We got to see all of the stages of the caterpillars and how they take the cocoons and turn it into silk and then how they make the designs on the looms. We bought some silk scarves that I will probably never be able to wear in Thailand but whatevs. Finally we headed to the Night Bazaar, where I was able to show off my bartering skills and help them buy a lot of goodies.  It was pretty fun to show off my Thai skills and all that I have learned so far!

my new umbrella!

The next day Kate got here! She will be teaching at my school now and wanted to meet up earlier so we could have some fun adventures before beginning work. We picked her up from the airport and then went straight to Tiger Kingdom! We opted for a package and saw the large, small and baby tigers! The large here HUGE! They were about 3 years old, but really nice. The small were like little teens and 4-5 months old.  We got to feed them bottles of milk and they were way more rambunctious.  The babies were 2 months old and freaking adorable! They were so sleepy but wanted to chew on our shoes.  I really wanted to steal one...

Then we hung out at the pool and rested a bit before heading out to the Night Bazaar again.  

Giant tiger

 baby tiger!

Flight of the Gibbons! I have heard that this is the best thing to do in Thailand and they were not wrong! We were all picked up from our hotel and taken into the jungle where we got to do a very long and detailed zip line course! I have zip lined twice before and you usually do about 5 lines and then you're done.  I lost track of how many we did! It was so fun! Our guides, Home and Boat were so fun and didn't speak that much English but were able to joke around.  We saw a family of gibbons, hiked to a waterfall and all had a really great time.

Kate zip lining!

Lampang

Next we had a car drive us to Lampang for our 3 day trek with elephants! I was super excited about this, while the other three needed convincing....We learned more about what the three days would entail when we got there.  The first day was meeting our mahout, (elephant trainer) learning commands, making elephant dung paper, and watching the show.  My elephants Wang Jaow, which is the name of the village she came from was so nice! My mahout, Nai, was pretty shy, he didn't speak any English and therefore would leave me alone with Wang Jaow while everyone else's mahouts were teaching them or leading them around.  At one point I was just alone in the jungle, hanging with my elephant! It was pretty funny. Nai came back at one point and brought me a guava and then left again...whatevs! We had to learn the different techniques of getting on and off of them, how to make them turn left and right, go forward and hand us stuff.  It was pretty cool but by the end of the day Mom, Sarah and Kate were wondering how they could get out of going into the jungle...lol it was also pretty hard and tiring.  The next day we woke up early and rode our elephants into the jungle.  It was such a breathtaking ride. I talk about those moments where I am so glad to live in Thailand and this was one of them.  We were riding through this bamboo jungle, bareback on elephants, with some of my favorite people and it was just amazing.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  We arrived at a little clearing where there were three bamboo huts.  We parked our elephants in the jungle (555) and then the mahouts took us on a little hike  to a waterfall. Along the way they found nuts for us, picked flowers for us and even cut some bamboo walking sticks for Mom and Sarah.  It was adorbs.  When we got back to camp they took all of the bamboo they cut down and started making us bamboo cups.  Nai spent a lot of time carving and perfecting mine so we think he is really sensitive and shy...555.  They also made sticky rice out of bamboo by putting rice into it along with some water and letting it sit by the fire for some time.  It was so cool.  The moment I will never forget is when Mat, our interpreter/guide walked over and said the mahouts have homemade moonshine and want to share it with you! I have never taken shots with my mom, so this was definitely a new experience! Mom and Sarah had three and Kate and I had five and I was def feelin it! It was also really cool because when the mahouts found out I could speak a little Thai I became a little bit of an interpreter.  I never thought anything like that would happen in my life! I felt pretty proud of myself. These four mahouts and four Americans just drinking moonshine and getting to know each other.  Love it. I slept pretty well on out bamboo floor but of course got up with the sun, washed in the river, and toasted some bread over a fire, ya know, normal stuff.  Then we got on our elephants and headed back to the conservation centre!

Mahout suits!

 Our house for the day!

 My bamboo cups with my elephant's name etched in it ;-)

We graduated Mahout school!

Phrae

The four of us had so much crap that we ended up having to take a songtau to Phrae.  It took a couple hours and some people weren't as happy and comfy as others but we made it! At Wat Metang, we are getting 5 new teachers so Nooters took Kate, Mel and I over to meet them and to see Kate's new apartment! We have another Kate, Leah, Mimi, Brandon, and Amanda from all over America.  It is definitely going to be a different semester with all of these newbies!
The next day was the first day of school! But nothing goes normally around here. I had to go to Nan to renew my 90 days and check in with Immigration.  The school was nice enough to give us a van and Nooters and another teacher, Bomb, took Mom and Sarah to Nan for the day! We went to the famous temple of the whispering couple,  the Nan museum, had yummy lunch and I'm not kicked out of the country!
The rest of the week Mom and sometimes Sarah came to my classes! That was really fun.  It was really nice for them to see what I am doing and to see where I spend most of my days here.  I was nervous that my students wouldn't remember me but it was nice that they still ran up and gave me high fives and hugs.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until I came back! Some of teachers took Mom, Sarah, Mel, Kate and I all out to dinner by the river and it was full of laughs and awkward questions of course.

It was so weird to have so many reminders of home in Thailand but it showed me how much I have already adapted to living here and how hard it is sometimes.  Thailand was not Mom and Sarah's most favorite country but it was nice to have them here and see a glimpse of what my life has been like! My 6 month anniversary of living here is coming up and I can't believe this experience is half way over! I look forward to the next 6 months and for more wonderful experiences!

Ali's Visit!

Wow, it has been a long time and such a crazy couple of weeks!
I went and picked Ali up from the airport on the night of October 1 and we had a day in Bangkok before we headed down to Koh Tao.  We took a river tour of the Chao Praya River and visited Wat Arun.  We went to Khao San Road and bought fake Ray Bans, we did all of the BKK stuff you can do in 24 hours!
Then we flew/took a ferry to Koh Tao! We flew on one of those little jumper planes where they have to place the weight just right and there are only 12 people on your flight.  It was a little scary but fun!

When we got to our scuba resort, Buddha View, we were so excited but so nervous! We had an orientation that night where they told us everything that we would be doing during the next four days and met the other four people in our group. (Another girl named Chelsea from Manchester!) There were also two Germans.  Our instructor called Ali and I, Team California, and the Germans, Team Germany, it was pretty funny. The next morning we had class with our instructor, Carine, and then practiced the basics in the swimming pool at Buddha View.  It was pretty cool but we were all pretty excited to get out into the ocean.  On Friday, we had our first confined sea dive! It was so cool! We had to be doing a lot of different drills and tests in order to be certified so it wasn't all fun and games. We also had to read a huge book, turn in four homework reviews, take four quizzes and at the end pass a final written test!
Anyway, on Saturday we had our last class session in the morning and then two dives at 12 meters in sea! We went to two different locations around Koh Tao and again practiced different drills and scenarios but also got to do a "fun dive" where we explored a little.  Sunday was our last day on Koh Tao and our last dives to get us certified! We met really early and this time did two dives at 18 meters.  We saw some beautiful fish and a ton of coral.  It was really amazing.  I can see why it is so addicting for so many people! It is a lot of work though, I knew you had to worry about a lot of different things but the set up and take down of everything was crazy! I already want to go back and get certified for my Advanced Open Water.  That allows you to go down 30 meters while Open Water only lets you go down 18 meters. Koh Tao is diving school central! It has 40 schools and is a relatively small island.  We would be on the ocean floor doing drills and just watching all of these different scuba people swim by.  It was like a whole village!

 just another day :-)

So, Ali and I left that night for Bangkok and we were pretty sad to go! We needed a relaxing day on Monday, we got back around 2 am and we were pretty tired from all the scuba. So, we went to the HUGE Siam Paragon (mall) and saw Taken 2! So good. Then we went to a fish spa! That is where the tiny fish eat off the dead skin on your feet! It was suuuuuper weird! We were so nervous at first but once you got used to the weird feeling and watching all of the fish on you, it wasn't too bad...and my feet felt nice and smooth afterwards!

fish eating my dead skin!

 the fish tickling Ali

 Then we went to an actual Thai massage, Ali loved it and we felt very relaxed. 
The next day we took an early morning bus to nearby Ayutthaya! It is an ancient city and former capitol.  We rented a tuk-tuk for 3 hours and he drove us all over town visiting the famous Wats and ruins! The most famous image of Thailand, the Buddha head coming out of the Bodhi tree is here and it was really cool to see in person! Ali really wanted to ride the elephants, obviously, so we went to this place where you can ride elephants around the temples and ruins.  Riding an elephant is always fun :-)

so famous it's roped off and everything! that is big for Thailand!

Her last day she wanted to go to this scary and gross forensic museum (Sorry Al) so we took a ferry and went to this hospital where they had dead bodies and all of this cut up stuff.   I looked at the interesting display on the tsunami and then excused myself...a little too much for me!

The past couple days I have been exploring Bangkok by myself, I saw Mel for half a second before she was off again! AAAnnnddddd my Mom and Aunt get here tomorrow!!!!!! less than 8 hours now! Yay, I can't wait. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!! I hope you have a great day :-) Until next time!

October Break!

Our last day of the semester was on Friday and now we have a month off! I am leaving in a couple hours on an overnight bus to Bangkok.  Then I will meet Ali at the airport on Monday night! We are going down to Koh Tao to get scuba certified and have a little beach time! Then back up to Bangkok for some exploring.  She leaves on the 10th, then my Mom and Aunt come on the 14th! We are heading down to Phuket, then Chiang Mai, Lampang for an elephant camp and then back to Phrae on the 23rd! First day of school on the 24th and my Mom and Aunt leave on the 27th :-( Somewhere in there, (18th) Kate gets here and meets us in Chiang Mai! It is going to be a crazy month! Can't wait! I don't know when I will be able to update next. Off to the bus station!

"Do you know what this is? This is cow shit!"

Mel is getting ready to go home and the word is slowly spreading around school that she is going to America. So, the requests are coming in! She was originally planning on just getting a few gifts for our favorite teachers and the director...but that is a dream long gone.  It all started when the Nooters asked her if she could her husband an Army "suit." (jacket, pants and hat) He loves army stuff and has a ton of it, I guess. Mel told Nooters to send her pictures of what he wanted and she would go to the Army Navy Surplus store and get them for him.  Later that day she burst out laughing when she got an email from Nooters with 35 attachments of pictures of Army uniforms! Oh goodness. We tried to convince her to buy it online and have it sent to Mel's house in Texas but Nooters wants to pay for it later and "doesn't have Mel's address!" (All logic is lost here sometimes)
Thhhennn the Lockers let Mel know that her husband would like a cowboy scarf from Texas. A what? A bandana. Oh you mean a bandana you can buy here in Thailand for 1/10 of the price?? Yes. Ok....Oh and her son wants a DKNY watch. This is just getting ridiculous!

So yesterday was Nooters birthday, so Lockers, Nooters, Mel and a woman we affectionately nicknamed the Librarian (because we have no idea what she does, but she is always lounging on the couches in the library) all went out to lunch.  At lunch the girls all gossiped about different teachers in Thai/English and the director and just laughed it up! It was so weird to see them let loose and it is always weird to see the Lockers smile.  They told Mel to buy the director something cowboy from Texas because he loves "everything cowboy and cowboy music." She said she would get him a belt buckle or something. And they just thought that was the funniest thing!

After lunch, we went to Swensen's in the Big C (Target) which has pictures of San Francisco everywhere and played a lot of music about SF. It was super weird.  They had different sundaes dedicated to SF classics, coit tower coffee, cable car sundae, etc. So weird. The Thai teachers had their weird sundaes with corn in them, (corn in EVERYTHING!) and we had yummy sundaes and then they said ok we are going shopping! Uhm ok? They took us to a thrift store-like place that had clothes from stores in America but were being resold. It was awesome! They had actual sizes and the clothes fit us, unlike the stick thin clothes they usually sell.

When we got back to school the Librarian called Mel over and had a Texas scarf on her computer.  She wanted two pashminas, one light brown and one that said Texas on it.  Why you would ever need a pashmina in Thailand is beyond me! Mel is trying to avoid all teachers from now until Tuesday in case she gets more requests.  She is going to be spending her whole time at home shopping for the Thai teachers and their family members!

Teacher Tiantong invited us to go on a sunset bike ride with her later that day through the rice paddies. We invited Nooters because her husband was in Laos for the week and we didn't want her to spend her birthday alone.  We met at the designated spot and Nooters rides up on a child's bike. I seriously wish everyone could meet her. She is just a hoot and a half! She says the funniest things and is always trying to learn English.  Whenever we say something and she isn't sure what it is she asks us about it and then says it under her breath three or four times and sometimes spells it to herself.  It is really funny to be driving with her and having her repeat half of what you are saying.
Anyways! We all bike off with Nooters trailing behind on her little child's bike that she says is her mother in law's...
We stop at some rice paddies with the sun setting to take a picture and she points to a pile of crap and says
"Do you know what that is? That is cow shit!" Mel and I burst out laughing!
Then she says "Is that what you say, cow shit?" "Sure or cow poop."
"Poop? Spell it please." "P-O-O-P."
"Poop, Cow poop or cow shit. P-O-O-P." "Yes, good."
A conversation I never thought I would ever have with my coordinator.  

Happy Birthday Nooters!

Little Teacher Tiantong

This was just a fun day that is just a little taste of the silly things that happen all the time!
October break so soon! I can't wait! :-)

Night Safari!

Over the weekend we met Jane and Erica in Chiang Mai because it was our last weekend all together before they go home! So sad :-( It is also Erica's birthday soon so we decided to splurge and stay at a real hotel! It was SO nice. It probably wasn't that nice compared to America, by American standards it was a 2 star hotel but to us it was luxurious! It had a soft bed, towels, blankets, A/C, a nice pool, an actual lobby, a concierge, and a complimentary breakfast! It was so nice! We usually stay at guesthouses that are Asia's version of hostels.  They are $3-4 a night and you get a mattress and a shared bathroom, which is usually all we need.  It was nice to stay somewhere so nice, we didn't feel like we belonged there!

Erica had been wanting to do the Chiang Mai Night Safari since our first visit so we went on Saturday evening after a day of shopping and relaxing at the pool! It was pretty interesting! Before we boarded our tram we watched some people feeding these weird fish from South America, they were huge and would just be sitting there and look like they didn't do anything when all of a sudden they would jump out of the water at the bait and scare the bejeezus out of us! I would not want to find one of them in the wild...

There was a North side and a South side, one zone had the predators and the other the prey! I bought a basket of bananas and carrots to feed to the animals along the way and we were off!

In our tram!

There were many animals wandering around and then some animals in enclosures.  The deer, impala, buffalo sort of animals were roaming around and would walk up to the tram and snatch our carrots and bananas away from us. A wild boar came out of nowhere and almost chomped my hand off...I didn't give my carrots away as freely after that.  My favorite was feeding the giraffes! They walked right up to the tram and stuck their heads in and spit their tongues out at us. I put a banana on one and it rolled it right in.  Their tongues were super long and scratchy, loved it! I also loved the zebras, they were beautiful, but we couldn't really feed them, we were only able to throw the carrots to them because they chomp fingers off...great! The guide told us just last week some guy lost his fingers to a zebra, and this place still isn't shut down? So Thai. 

Helloooo giraffe!

We saw the usual suspects you see at a zoo, but it felt very much like jurassic park! We had to keep driving through sterilization baths and different gates to get to different zones.  It was nighttime, obviously, so we would be driving seemingly aimlessly and then they would shine spotlights on different enclosures.  It was pretty silly sometimes. At one point the guide told us that the kangaroos were not from Australia because they wouldn't give them any, but some people from Texas were more than willing to! 555

At the end of the tram tour there was an optional walk around a lake that was supposed to have more animal, it was dark and late at this point and we were pretty wary...There was no lighting to help you on your way, of course, and we were not sure what we were supposed to be looking for.  Luckily, our phones had flashlights on them and some people told us it was worth it to walk around so we kept trekking.  We saw a leopard and a bengal tiger and some lemurs on an island. It was really fun but so random! 

The scary but fun walking trail

This week at school we are preparing for Sports Day! This means we only have classes in the morning and in the afternoons the kids are running and practicing cheers.  There are different teams and everyone is very excited! Mel and I are on the green team, not that we know what that means...555 Nooters told me yesterday to "prepare my green suit." Uhmmmmm ok? Next Tuesday, there will be a parade and everyone will compete at our Phrae stadium. It should be a spectacle to behold!