# 23 Neighbors

I got really lucky having such a great placement, living on the high school campus, Pla Pak Witiya. Most government jobs such as teachers, postmen,doctors, police,etc.. provide on-site housing. How awesome, right?! On the high school campus is a row of houses reserved for teachers only. Here is my street!

My house is like a duplex with another house sharing a wall providing close quarters with my neighbors (see My House). Again, I have been lucky to have wonderful neighbors. For the first semester of teaching there was a family living next door with a 2 year old daughter, Katjang. You can imagine my excitement knowing that I'd have a playmate around. She would always be waiting in the front when Amanda and I came home from teaching, jumping up and down screaming " PI TUEY, PI DAA" (for Pi Bai Tuey and Pi Amanda) doing a happy dance. It was interesting for me to see how they parent children and the similarities and differences between the cultures. Potty training for the most part was a free for all. They let it be a natural process unlike most American parents who pressure their children before they are ready. If Katchang had to go, where ever she was standing she'd do her business or as she got older would use Pi Yok's garden haha. This led to a lot of laundry though! Her 'crib' was a plastic basket lined with blankets hanging from rope with no guard rails or safety devices. We also got the pleasure to hear her screaming during bath and bed time or at 6 am on weekend mornings yahhh. However, as a new family, they wanted a place of their own near their family which led them to build a house in a village nearby and move during semester break. saddd

When we came home from break, SURPRISE, the Student Teachers and a chinese volunteer had moved in! They are the same age as Amanda and I (23) which has been nice to be around thai people in the same age range since many of my teachers are above 40. They definitely have changed our house dynamic and have taken an interest in learning english. Often we hear yelled through our walls, "WHERE YOU GO??" "WHAT YOU DOING?". It's been fun having them around hearing about their many many so-called boyfriends and helping each other with our thai and english. I have been able to get a taste of living next to a new family and the younger generation of thai people!

Washing mushrooms after school one day. Left to right: Chompoo, Teep, Owie, Gen

#24 Weather

This might fall more into the hate-love category of my Thailand experience, but never-the-less I'm sure I will miss it. Coming from the mild climate of California, I had little experience dealing with the extreme weather conditions that thailand goes through. This seems like an appropriate tribute to do today since last night I survived an intense thunder & lightening storm that cut off our power and shook our house. The lights were out but a shot of lightening came down every second lighting up our house so we could still see a little. It was pretty incredible to watch. The storm came after a day with a heat index of 106! With a little warning of wind a storm can onset within minutes. Thai's have weird ideas about the lightening with one of my teachers taking off her watch and rings when a storm is coming, and unplugging all appliances, afraid lightening would be attracted to it.

The humidity is something I dislike very much and will be happy to return to dry California. I have acquired a serious hate-love relationship with my classroom fan. I would not be able to teach without it but continuously am picking up papers off the ground or forgetting and setting a stack of papers down in line with the fan that sprays them across the classroom. Ahh I hate it so much, but love it.

read more about rainy season see: Rainy Season

Other weather memories are of our great escape from southern thailand during the flood.

Two of my favorite products for dealing with the heat:

Cooling Powder. A sprinkle of this down the front and back of your shirt provides an instant cooling sensation!

Pond's Sweetie Pink is a light, face powder for hot days!

# 24 By Air, Bus, or Motorcycle

If its by plane, bus, motorcycle, or cart, Thailand has a pretty good line of transportation set up, thats cheap too! One surprisingly cheap way is by air with the wonderful AirAsia! They do flights all over Asia with prices as low as $20 to fly to vietnam. I recently booked all my flights to Malaysia and Indonesia for my month of traveling before coming to the states and I'm happy I'll be able to come back home with a little money still left in my account. Thank you Airasia!

For my two months of traveling for summer break the most common way of travel was bus. Some of the schedules might be a little iffy but for the most part the bus system was an extremely easy and cheap way of travel. For my 11 hour bus ride to Bangkok we take the VIP bus (pictured above) which is equipped with big reclinable chairs, a bus stewerdess who serves you a dinner and breakfast, face wipes when you wake up in the morning, and an overall comfy ride, for about $20. Of course not all buses are as pimped out at the VIP and make numerous stops to let people on and off which makes a 3 hour ride turn into a 6 hour one. I was impressed by them though and immediately as I passed over the border into Lao the quality went down drastically. The buses allowed me a nice scenic view of the country as I toured almost all regions in thailand.

In the villages and cities the most common way of travel is motorcycle. I have never seen so many people fit on one motorcycle before usually with a baby in arm. It makes US safety laws look ridiculous over the exact way a baby needs to be strapped into a car seat and such. In Thailand 2-3 year olds cling on to whatever they can and babies clutch in an arm as they swerve through traffic. With that said, There is a high toll of deaths due to motorcycle accidents. During my months of from teaching one of my favorite activities was renting a motorcycle and riding around for the day. One of my favorite memories in Thailand was the day Pi Yok taught Amanda and I how to ride her motorcycle. Ending with one of us almost going straight into a ditch and have to have the motorcycle lifted off.

**

***Photos taken from Peter Pfister

Here are some pictures taken of unique transportation in NKP. The one in the middle, of the rice farmer, is the most common that you'll hear rumbling out to the fields in the early morning and returning in the evening. The first is a cart full of Thai brooms which I love! They sweep amazingly well and I want to get one back to the states somehow.

The sleeper train to Chaing Mai from Bangkok is another great way to travel in thailand!

# 25 Thai Language

Thai Alphabet ^^^
The one thing I was most nervous about before coming to Thailand was the language. Having zero experience with a tonal language I knew it would be a challenge to learn sounds unknown to the english language. Take the following sentence for example " mai mai mai mai mai (with varying tones), can mean the ‘new wood doesn’t burn does it?’ Or the length of sound in kii, which could mean ‘ride’ or ‘shit’ depending on which way you say it as volunteer Ben found out as he tried to explain "ride" the bus but instead said "shit" the bus to his students. Even worse is the similarity between glai, where only a falling tone differentiates the meaning from ‘near’ and ‘far’. I have definitely had my moments of mixing up the tones sending my students into fits of laughter but at the end of the day you just have to roll with it and laugh at yourself. In all honesty I'm extremely impressed by how much language the other volunteers and I have been able to pick up over the course of the year. I can't have in-depth conversations with my co-teachers but I've gotten to the point where I can understand the topic of whatever their conversation. My best language teachers have definitely been my students. My thai vocabulary mainly has come from them if its the words that we are learning in english or simple classroom commands. They are pacient with me as I butcher thai words at them slowly repeating them back at me in correct sounds.

Living in northeastern Thailand, has its own set of challenges learning thai since predominenately the village people in this region speak in a dialect of thai called Issan. This has caused quite a bit of confusion mixing up the languages often. However, I have really come to like the Thai language due to its practicality. There is no tenses, no plurals, no ending puncuation, no capitals, no spaces between words, rare use of pronouns, and no articles . However, you can probably now see how difficult it is to teach a language with as much grammar as english does, to students who have no experience with it in their native language. I spend lessons solely on teaching my youngest students that you need a space in between words and how you can't switch back in between capital and lowercase letters. Here are some direct translations of Thai words that I find really great.

Meow Nam: Cat Water: Seal

Ma Lie: Horse stripes: Zebra

Nam: can be used for water, soup, juice

See Fah: Color sky: Blue

See Khao: Color rice: White

Dtam Ahan: Do food: cook

Hong Nam: Room water: Bathroom

Nam Kaeng: Water strong: Ice

#26-Cha Dam

This is to my lovely adopted thai dog Cha Dam- Black Tea. He is actually our neighbors dog but in reality he spends more time at my house, basically becoming our dog. You can usually find him lounging in our dining area on the cool cement floor reeking the benifits of our ceiling fan or pestering his girlfriend, Shampa, a beautiful golden mix that lives down the street. Before he had to be tied up during school hours he'd be Amanda's shadow throughout the day, following her to all her classes. During dinner time he lounges under our chairs waiting for the scraps from dinner with us more than often having to give him a bonk on the nose, to keep him from pawing us. Recently, he has been accompanied by a new litter of kittens who wander in and out of the house. Amanda and I joke that our house has become some sort of animal refuge. At one time containing a dog, litter of kittens, colony of frogs (in the bathroom), and dozens of geckos. Cha Dam is a very unintentional present figure in my life, being the first one to greet me on my way home to school and seems to always 'be there'. He is the source of Amanda and my entertainment for the weeks that we don't have internet, always putting up with our antics. I first met Cha Dam during our orientation month where he harassed all the volunteers endlessly. He, like thai people, is very excited by the foreigners. To now, being my Thai dog. He even starts whining if he can't get to Amanda and I.He definitely fills the void of my american dog, Holly, who I miss very much!

Cha Dam likes: Watermelon, meats, sticky rice, kittens, girlfriend- shampa, foreigners, harassing students

dislikes: spicy food, water, hot weather, other dogs who try to be my friend

Holly and I enjoying a day at the river.

#27 Mosquito Net

# 27 Mosquito Net

Over the past year I've grown quite fond of my mosquito net. Especially now, during raining season when mosquito are at an all time high and I swear by the number of mosquito bites I have I'm bound to get malaria (joke, joke). Its become part of my routine to tuck in and out my net in the morning and night protecting myself from the swarms of mosquitos and gecko droppings that shower my floor every night. The mosquito net is something unique to my life in Thailand and although it might not be as significant as other aspects of this culture it has become an everyday routine that wont be a part of my life returning to the states. I remember my first few nights sleeping under it in my new house with feelings to excitement and fear of my first days teaching. Now, I have come to my last month with my beloved pink net and not wanting to let it go. Like so many little aspects of my thai house and routines I've adapted to over the course of the year such as sweeping the house every night of fallen bugs, boiling pots of water for a shower, hanging my laundry out to dry on the line, and doing dishes in buckets, the mosquito net is one of them.

#28 Somdtam Pok Pok

A tribute definitely has to be made for my favorite thai dish that I have yet to get tired of, Somdtam- aka Papaya Salad. I'm sure my choice was influenced over the fact that this dish is vegetarian, which is hard to come by in Issan making my options not too broad. Somdtam is a staple of the Issan diet and is served at every meal as a side dish next to Khao Neiow- sticky rice. The combination of sweet, spicy, sour, and salty added with the crunch of unripe papaya and peanuts makes it a winner. One crucial mistake can be made when ordering somdtam, not specifying Somdtam Thai. In Issan they mainly eat somdtam Lao which adds fermented fish sauce. Fermented fish sauce, Bla La, meaning lazy fish, is exactly how it sounds. Whole fish that have been allowed to sit in a tub and ferment over a number of days. The people of Issan LOVE this flavor and is something my taste buds have not become and may never acclimated to.

In the picture above is my favorite somdtam shop with the lady that makes the best somdtam in the village. We have become buds in my weekend lunch trips to get my dose of somdtam. She knows my order down to the number of chili peppers I like in my dish. She slowly talks to me in thai so I can understand her and I always look forward to my weekend visits!

#29 Nicknames

#29 Nicknames

Goong : Shrimp

Oan : Fat (his twin brother is named Joy- Skinny)

Book: Book

Poo - said more like Bpoo but still funny

Nicknames are an important aspect of Thai culture and is among one of the first questions you'll be asked. The other volunteers and I have shared many laughs at the silliest of nicknames of our students as they come in all forms. The reason behind nicknames is their full first name is too long and elaborate to say so the parents give them a nickname to go by. How they come up with these names, I do not know! I think I would be depressed my whole life if I had to go by the nickname Fat and my twin got to be Skinny! Or how about weird english names such as Book, Ice, Bank, A, Bow, Nut,or Luck. Some of the most common names amongst my students seem to be : Gkai- Chicken, Som- Orange, Chompoo- Rose Apple, Lek and Noi- Small and Malee- Jasimine flower. Then, I start thinking about my own Thai nickname Bai Tuey, which I finally found the english translation to: Pandan Leaf. I always laugh when I think of the english translation of what my students are saying " Teacher Pandan Leaf, Teacher Pandan Leaf!" One of the many reasons why I love Thailand....

<-----Bai Tuey!

Tributes to Thailand- #30

As much as I hate looking too far into the future and not living in the here and now, my time in the village of Pla Pak and the honor of being Khru Bai Tuey, is coming closer and closer to an end. With a little over a month left of teaching I can tell emotions between myself and the other volunteers are getting a mix of pure anxiety, sadness, and excitement to where ever our next steps in life are taking us. Some volunteers already have jobs or graduate school to go back to while the majority of us are going into mom and dad's house and even one volunteer is continuing his time as an english teacher in nakhon phanom provience. Anyways over the next 30 days I want to bring light to some of the big and little aspects of Thailand that have made this experience so unique and why I will forever hold a special spot for Thailand. I figure my last 2 weeks in the village are going to be a fury of emotions with goodbye parties ( my roommate Amanda leaves me a week early) and packing up my life from the past year and there won't be much time for fiddling around on my blog. This time will be much better spent with the people who have made my year so fulfilling. So here we go...

# 30 (these are not in order!)

SAWNG-TAO

For the past year I have not driven a car but have relied on the Sawng-tao, a pick-up truck that serves as the local transportation in between villages and cities. The picture to the left is taken almost a year ago of our group's first sawng-tao trip to the city. I have grown to enjoy my hour sawng-tao ride to city as it is a great way to interact with the local village people who are always surprised to see a farang. It also can be very peaceful, passing the dozen and dozen of rice fields, roaming water buffalos, and watching families on motorcycles whizzing by. The sawng-tao has also played an important role to my independence in Thailand. Relying heavily on my co-teachers, thai friends, and pi yok for most of my daily living, the sawng tao is something that I can do by myself and allows me quick and easy transportation out of the village. And for that I am thankful for this truck and inexpensive ride! Only $1.25 into the city

Somebody call the doctor

The past few days I've come down with a high fever, sore throat, headache, and all over miserableness. Being sick at home in the US is already bad enough, but put that in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language it's about 10x worse. I knew before coming to Thailand that I would inevidently probably get really sick at least one time but I didn't think about the cultural differences that there would be about how to treat or act to someone who is sick. When somebody is sick in the US you usually let them rest by themselves and leave them to get better, maybe offering to bring by some soup. In Thailand, just about everybody will be knocking at your door or in my case yelling up to my window until you answer. They come into your house (of course always with the best intentions) to give you medicine and fruits and want to chit-chat getting a detailed account of all your symptoms (keep in mind this happens multiple times). You can imagine the pantomiming that goes on here is pretty hilarious too. For me, when I'm really feeling sick I want to be by myself, lay in bed and hopefully sleep. The concept of "alone time" is unheard of and not widely accepted mainly because of the fear of ghosts. For example, I have three student teachers living next door to me now, who are also 23 years old, and instead of each sleeping in their separate rooms they all sleep next to each other in one room! Yes, personal space is minimal to non-existent, which is why worldteach made sure each volunteer had their own room.

Anyways, back to my sickness. Yesterday when I was really feeling in the gutter and had run out of medicine for a fever I decided to go to the hospital to get my temperature read and stock up on more medicine. The hospital in my village acts more like a doctors office containing only a few doctors and is a little rustic to say the least. I went with one of my teachers to help translate the little english that she knows. The trip was like what I'd heard from other volunteers that have been to a hospital in our teaching areas but I guess I needed to experience it for myself. I wasn't feeling too hot, or I had a fever, so I was feeling really hot and not in mood for the farange stare-down from everybody in the hospital. My teacher and I were constantly bombarded by people wanting to know what I was doing there and exactly what was wrong. Since I and all the other worldteach volunteers had checked into the hospital when we first got to thailand to get a health clearance for our visas, my name was already in their system. However, I and another volunteer have basically the same first and last name making is virtually impossible for Thai people to tell the difference. Heather Jones and Heather Johns...really! That caused a lot of confusion at the hospital and time of me explaining that it is 2 people after they tried to give me a slip for Heather Johns who somehow also was misrecorded to by 33 years old?. So I wait an hour and finally get to see the doctor who is a young lady in her late 20's I'd guess. I'm pretty sure I was the first foreigner she'd seen because she had no idea what to say or do. She barely even looked at me and there were long awkward silences. She asked Pi Med some questions and wrote out about 5 prescriptions for various aliments. oookkkay I guess that's it. I pick up my prescriptions which cost about $4 for 5 difference medications and we are on our way. On the way back to my house Pi Med turns to me and laughs saying that the doctor was veryy veryy shy. Lets just hope this is the last of me being sick in Thailand!