New Years in Krabi!

I seriously suck at writing my blog this semester, I am really sorry! Sixth grade is getting ready for this National test so that has taken up a lot of my free time and now we are all starting to plan and think about our travel plans after teaching. It has been sort of stressful and super busy but when those are your biggest stresses, you know you're doing something right!

Anywho, Mel, Soddy, Leah, Mimi and I took the night bus to Bangkok after school on Wednesday and arrived around 4:30am.  We headed to the Don Muang Airport where we caught our Air Asia flight down to Krabi! We took Thursday, Friday and the next Wednesday off from work so we would be able to have a really nice vacation. We arrived around 10am on Thursday and headed to where we were staying, Pan Beach Bungalows. It was so nice. The bungalows were pretty basic and there was only electricity from 6pm until 6am, but that doesn't really matter if you are at the beach all day! The bungalows were right on the beach and a private beach at that, with only about 4 or 5 other people from Pan staying there.  So luxurious and only for $6 a night! We immediately got in our suits, jumped in the water and ordered Western food. So fun!

 The beach was in a bay and there were a lot of islands in the bay, so Soddy and I decided to swim out to a nearby one. It was so cool!
As it gets later the tide goes out and we were left with little lagoons and you could eventually walk out to the island I had swam to earlier! There was also a wedding going on that was so beautiful and we watched it from our lounge chairs as we watched the sun set. So perfect.

The next day we signed up for a snorkeling tour. The boat master, Eat, and his son, picked us up in a longboat from our beach and took us to nine different islands! We swam around off of one island, saw SO many different colored fish on one island, sea snakes off of another, ate lunch on the most beautiful island, watched the sun set and the moon rise on another, and played with phosphorescent fish at another! It was incredible! We all just kept saying how much fun we were having and how incredible the day was. Amazing.

Soddy, Me, Mel, Leah and Mimi!

We stayed at Pan for two days and then moved into the city of Krabi for three at a more central location. We, of course, did beach time, got massages, tons of Western food, (hello pizza!?) and met up with friends from around Thailand. Mimi, Leah and I were having dinner one night, spilling our hearts when I told them about the tattoo I wanted to get above my scar to commemorate this move to Thailand and show how far I have come after my diagnosis. They were so enthused and encouraged me to get it! What better place than the most beautiful place in the world?! We found a place that does bamboo tattoos, the traditional method in Thailand and usually done by a monk. I was really excited and knew this was the right time and place.  It didn't hurt as much as the machines ones and turned out exactly as I wanted. Elephants are lucky in Thailand, so it goes with my other two and they are all on my right side, which is where the cancer was found. Need all the luck on that side! The bamboo tattoos heal faster than machine so I was out the next day on the beach and totally fine! I am so happy and will never forget that experience and those girls who held my hand, took pictures, and supported me through this past semester :-)

Love this pic of Leah and me

Getting my new tattoo!

All done! With my tattoo artist, Beer.

On New Years Eve, we got Indian food for dinner and then headed to the beach! People were lighting lanterns and gathering on the sand.  We met up with Amanda and her boyfriend, Clai, and Brandon and some of his friends.  We all immediately took off our shoes and waded into the water, getting ready to ring in the new year! People started counting down and as we said "Happy New Year," tons of lanterns flew into the air and fireworks were exploding everywhere! It was such a great New Years! I was able to call my Mom and tell her that the world hadn't ended, oh and about my new tattoo...and she took it great! What a trooper!

On New Years Day some people weren't really feeling up for much of anything, if you know what I mean...So Soddy and I decided to go off by ourselves. We took a longboat taxi to Tonsai Beach and rented some kayaks for a couple hours. Then, we kayaked over to nearby Railay Beach and nearby islands.  Then we found some caves and mangroves! It was amazing! Paddling through them and maneuvering the rocks were awesome, it was like a Disney ride! SO fun.

Unfortunately we had to go home at some point. We took a night bus back to BKK, which took 11 hours, then hopped on another bus to Phrae, another 8 hours! We were pretty much slugs the rest of the day and then had to teach Thursday and Friday.  But it was all worth it!

Christmas Chaos

Christmas was unlike any Christmas I have ever had.  Of course, it was in Thailand. The Thai teachers wanted the foreign teachers to put on a show for the students, on Christmas Day.  We had meetings every Thursday after school for hours trying to come up with ideas that everyone liked and agreed with.  It was not coming together and Christmas was coming up! Finally, the week before, we came up with a Christmas carnival idea with six stations and two foreign teachers at each station.  That way, everyone could do what they wanted at the station and everyone would be happy.  The Thai teachers were not that excited, they really wanted to see us sing and dance and make Christmas fools of 

ourselves.  

6/1's Christmas Tree!

Some fun art projects we did!

On Christmas we were all feeling a little nostalgic and sad that we weren’t with our families.  We were all also a little nervous that this day was going to be crazy! We sang “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” at assembly and then broke off into our stations.  We had pratom 1, 2, and 3 coming in the morning and then 4, 5, and 6 in the afternoon so it was going to be a busy day! There are about 35 students in every class and we would be getting up to 4 classes at a time, every 20 minutes! Goodness. Leah and I were doing “Pin the Nose on the Snowman.” We made two huge snowmen and cut out some noses for the kids to try to tape on.  We put a Santa hat over their eyes and then spun them three times. The little kids were so cute! There were so many kids each time that not everyone got to go :-/  The students each had to bring a present for a gift exchange they do each year that was up to 50 baht and we each brought one that was 100 baht so a few lucky students got a special surprise. 

 One of the stations was Santa handing out the presents to the students, another was a Christmas Tree drawing contest, a dance competition station, and then some other games.  Leah teaches pratom 5 and I teach pratom 6, so we quickly knew that pin the nose on the snowman was not going to fly with the older kids. We tried to think of some new fun ideas for them and Leah really wanted to do a Christmas rap! Our first group was 6/1, 6/2, 6/3 and 6/7.  I beatboxed while she rapped a Christmas song, it was so funny and so embarrassing. Afterwards, we told them to get in groups and come up with their own rap. It did not go over well. Haha they were all too shy to do it or didn’t understand what we wanted...great. Then we decided to play charades with the next group.  One student would come up and pick “Santa Claus” or “snowman” and have to act it out.  It went ok but was too hard for such a large group.  The next group we broke them up into 2 large groups and had them play “Duck, Duck, Goose!” It was so much better and they loved the huge circles they would have to run around.  We did that the rest of the time and were all super exhausted when the day was finally over! 

Pin the Nose on the Snowman!

So cute!

Christmas Rapping!

However, the day wasn’t completely over.  The director wanted to take us to dinner for Christmas, super nice but they always think we want to eat American food, so they take us to this disgusting “Steak House” that has no form of steak whatsoever! We would rather have great Thai food than bad American food... There is a weird hot dog thing, fish and pork. The french fries and beer are good though! We had a lot of fun all together at this unconventional Christmas dinner and made the best of being away from our families.  

I was able to skype with my family during their Christmas Day. But it kind of just made it harder to see them all together and doing our traditional Christmas things, while I  taught Buddhist Thai children about this Christian holiday. 

It made it a little easier that we were leaving the next day for Krabi for a week vacation! We all had been so excited and preparing for weeks. We took the night bus to Bangkok, got their around 4 and then headed straight to the airport for our flight down to Krabi! 

To be continued....

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Thailand! We had a crazy non-traditional Christmas here.  I will write more about it but we are leaving for Krabi after school for a little vacation! Here is a video of a song that Teachaa Mimi wrote and had her 3/2 perform! It is so cute! Hope everyone had a great holiday :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9EVCGGYcE&feature=youtu.be

Pai for Mel's Birthday!

December 8th was Mel's birthday, so all eight of us and our friends Nick and Allison and Brandon and Nicole decided to go to Pai for the long weekend to celebrate! Mel and I have been wanting to go to Pai for so long but the drive is super long and windy and it is tucked away in the mountains, making it hard to get to. We left on Friday for Chiang Mai and then Saturday morning we got the earliest tickets we could to Pai, 12:00. We all popped some dramamine and then passed out for the next 4 hours until we arrived in the hippy, mountain town of Pai! Our hostel was just outside of town and in these amazing bungalows. 

Our bungalows in the mountains!

Since we were in the mountains it got SO cold! I dunno if we are all just becoming more and more Thai and so we aren't used to the cold weather or what but I was FREEZING. Kate Rose and I had to snuggle once night to get some more body heat! It was super nice to feel cold again but we weren't prepared for this level of cold.  

The town is pretty small and has a really fun walking street that we all went to and bought lots at.  We also rented some bikes and biked around, it was so nice and relaxing.  A couple of us took a tuk tuk to a waterfall and swam in the freezing water. So fun! And of course we had a lot of delicious Western food that we had all been missing.

Mel, Allison and Me right outside our hostel

We were even able to celebrate the first night of  Chanukah! Mimi brought candles and we lit them at the bar we were at and she sang some songs for us! It was really cool.

Mimi, Nick and Elena celebrating Chanukah!

(Notice all of the scarves!)

Pai was so fun and so relaxing! I hope we can go back soon :-) 

Loy Krathong :-)

Loy Krathong was last Wednesday! It is a huge festival in Thailand and very important to many people here.  Here is a little background on it:

"Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Loi means 'to float', while krathong refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which floats on the water.  Thais use the krathongs to thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha."

We have been hearing about Loy Krathong since the day we got here so I was very excited to be able to participate in it.  On Saturday, after we dropped Elise off at the airport we went straight to Maejo University in Chiang Mai.  They were holding a Yi Peng Festival, the Northern equivalent of Loy Krathong. A lot of the others were already there and Leah, Kate Rose and I were going to meet them.  We had no idea what to expect but were very excited! When we got to the University, there were a ton of vendors selling lanterns to light and send into the sky.  We had already called Mel and we knew they had spot saved for us and the whole group was sending a lantern up together, but we decided to do a lantern on our own also.  We bought a lantern for 30 baht each and the man helped us light them and send them off! It sounds so stupid but it was so moving and touching. When you let it go, you are supposed to make a wish and think good thoughts and I am not embarrassed to say that I cried. It was such the culmination of my trip to Thailand. I came here after a tough year of learning I had lung cancer and then having to get part of my lung removed. It was so cool to let go of my lantern and really feel like I made it. I survived and now I am living in Thailand! It was a really cool moment.

Letting go of my lantern!

Leah, Me and Kate Rose!

 So many lanterns!

Nick, Mel, Me and Kate Rose

After we lit and let go of our lanterns, we headed into the festival and met up with the other people from our group.  They had written all of our names on our lantern and then we wrote our favorite student's name on it also.  There was a really cool ceremony where monks chanted and walked around with krathongs.  Then they told us to light the ground lanterns, then to light our lantern with our ground lanterns. We all stood around it as the fire filled the lantern with heat and made a wish, then people started letting them go and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! People later said there were about 10,000 lanterns, I would definitely believe it.  When they were first let go, it was so pretty but as they got further and further away, the lanterns looked like thousands of stars. It was so cool.  We just stood watching them for a long time until there weren't any left.

On Wednesday, it was the day of actual Loy Krathong.  The school gave us some fun outfits to wear, told us to wear a lot of make-up, put our hair in a bun and meet at the school at 5.  Then they drove us to where the school's dance team and the rest of the teachers were and told us we would walk in the parade! Basically the whole town was in it so there were little to no spectators but it was so fun! We were all dressed up, carrying krathongs, and people were setting off firecrackers.

Mel, Leah and I lookin like Asian flight attendants!

English Department at Watmetang Karawas School!

Mimi, Kate and I with our krathongs!

After the parade, we went to the moat in the middle of the city and got ready to put our krathongs in the water. As you push the krathong away from you, you also push away the negativity and bad thoughts.  

Here were a lot of krathongs already in the moat!

It was such a great Loy Krathong! Couldn't have asked for better :-)

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!