My Weekend Getaway

on the beach in Ko Samet!

Channi, Angie, Woods and Tan

Playing with Angie and Tan (Naga children)

Tan

Burying Angie

Student Comments

Was grading M4 (15-16 year olds) listening tests tonight. One of my students, Pea, crossed out a phrase on one of the lines (which he then corrected), but wrote in tiny letters, in parentheses: "(Sorry, I don't have liquid paper.)" :o) Super cute, with perfect grammar, too! Students are obsessed with white-out here!

For English Club, taught by Howard, Jacqueline and myself, we each teach two teams (which we created in the beginning) in rotating groups: listening, reading and games. For each week, we do a scavenger hunt, for which the items/ information are due next week, as a team. Last week's first scavenger item was to find and write down three inventors and what they invented. Here is what one of the teams wrote: see photo below...

Motorbike Lesson 1

This past Sunday, Jacqueline gave me my first lesson on the motorbike at a field nearby, which has a paved road around it. After learning how to start the bike, I worked my way up to a steady pace, and then started making some turns. The location was perfect, as there are no other vehicles or pedestrians to get in the way.... However, we then moved to an empty-ish parking lot area, right between the field and the school. I took off to try and go at a normal speed and practice making U-turns and such. Well, while there were no road obstacles (such as other cars or people), there was a pack of dogs that suddenly took off after me!!

They started growling at my ankles, so out of total fear and instinct, my hand turned the gear up and I sped off onto some dirt road. I then realized this was a dead end, so I had to go back through them. Right back through I went, still being heavily chased by these mangy, dirty, horrible creatures we call dogs, barking and growling and perhaps even nipping away... I honked my horn continuously and started screaming, "Basta, Basta, Basta!!" (which, of course means "Stop", but in Spanish!). I finally found my way to Jacqueline, just around the corner, and made it safely to a halting stop, with my heart beating out of my chest.

What the hell? I mean, I walk through this parking lot everyday to go to school. Maybe, the dogs are attuned to knowing there aren't any motorbikes in this area during the weekends... but I just don't believe that. Maybe, they sensed my fear. Who knows, but I hate them. And overall, I had a successful first ride, now feeling a bit more confident after having come across my first obstacle, however unplanned and unwanted it was.

(Jacqueline shot a mini-video of me driving the motorbike in the first part of the lesson - before the dogs - which she posted on her blog. It's about 3 seconds long. Check it out: http://deaninthailand.blogspot.com/2009/08/weekend-in-videos.html

A Recycling Beauty Pageant (of sorts)??

Yes, that's right... my school had a recycling dress-up contest this afternoon, during school hours - which resulted in many absences and 1/2 hour late students...! Students, I believe from M/4, M/5 and M/6 designed, created and presented recycled dresses and outfits to promote recycling. I wish I knew more about the event to tell you, but I simply did not even know it was going on until it was happening. I saw the last part of it, when the finalists were chosen, and then students were given out paper DNA wheels to put in the basket of whom they thought should win. Some students even dropped in 20 baht notes! Each of the finalists spoke for a minute or so, and I believe they were explaining their outfits - but alas, I could not understand. Nevertheless, it was a very cool event, and amusing at the least... the whole show really exhibits the creativity of Thais -- which is beyond credible... I've posted a few examples below. View the photo album in large to see some awesome close-ups, where you can really see the materials they used.

Finalists lining up

Students cheering their classmates on
A skirt made of straws... and check out her can-top arm band!

Check out those eyelashes and that hair-do! And yes, she has sleeves made of plastic bags and her dress if made from bottle tops and Whiskey boxes... how awesome is that!

Now, this dress actually looked wearable and fashionable, albeit made of newspapers.

The DNA genetic wheels that they collected from the mass (don't ask... I don't know)

Queen's Birthday/ Mother's Day

Today was Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!) and the Queen's Birthday. And they are related. It is Mother's Day because it is the Queen's Birthday. The King's Birthday is in December, and that is Father's Day. For both days, everyone has off of work and school, so once again, no classes today. (In fact, we have not had a full week of teaching in over a month!)

Howard told me that he once asked what will happen when the King passes away; will Father's Day then fall on the new King's birthday? The response was that the King will never die. Such conversation is pretty taboo, so with such, no more questions asked.

I took another approach and asked one of the Thai English teachers when Father's Day was with the previous King. She shrugged it off and said she could not remember such a time.

So, there's Thailand politics for you, in a nutshell.

Ms. Bpun - the English Department head - took us out to dinner tonight, and brought along her daughter. Her daughter, Benz, just came back a month ago from 3 months of working in Midlands, Texas as a cleaner at Holiday Inn! I asked her about it, and she said that it was through a program that places students throughout the US to work. A cleaner at Holiday Inn?? She was excited about having been to America, and afterwards, she went to visit L.A. and was really excited about having been to Hollywood. Again, I ask a cleaner at Holiday Inn?? She comes from a very well-to-do family here in Thailand. Her mother is the Head of the English Department at Sri Racha School, her father is some bank big-wig and is the Director of the Bangpra Reservoir, among many other things, and she studies at a prominent university in Bangkok, majoring in Korean Studies. She speaks pretty good English, Korean, and of course, her native language is Thai. Kind of makes you think how many other cleaners at such inns we come across and never realize that they might be there on some work abroad program!

Below is a photo from dinner, from left to right: Howard, Jacqueline, Ms. Bpun, Me, Benz and Ms. Mon

Lopburi & Angthong Weekend

After another long, but so-Thai journey, Jacqueline and I arrived in Lopburi Friday night around 12:30 am. We left Sri Racha at 4:30 pm. See some photos of the first leg of our journey below (after all the text).

We spent Friday night in Lopburi at Angela's (my roommate from orientation, from London) along with Ally, who came from her home teaching town of Anthong. Ally is from Texas and she was one of the girls that went with me to Ko Samet... back in May.

Saturday afternoon, we took a 45 minute minivan taxi to the small town of Anthong, where Ally, Jen (Canada) and Maddy (Australia) teach. They are all girls I met at orientation and new teachers in Thailand.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Wat Muang, which holds the second largest Buddha in Thailand, as well as scenes from the 7 tiers of Hell! Wait until you see the photos. After separate bathroom trips, we all kind of got separated from one another, and only came across each other later on in the afternoon, all horrified and deeply disturbed by the 7 tiers of Hell. It was very calming to walk around the Buddha, and much needed after the gory display of Hell. Kind of gives you an insight into Thai buddhism - one that I didn't know was there! As always, I've only included a few photos, but you must see the rest to grasp the full horror of the temple displays on my Picasa site.

Photos below:

Motorbike Taxi-ing it... as you do in Thailand

Sittin' on Trains... the 4 1/2 hour journey to Lopburi

Lovely Restaurant in Anthong with the Woman of the House/ Restaurant

The Restaurant Owners

Creepy Wat Muong Temple in Anthong: The 7 tiers of Hell

Notice the beer bottle in his hand... due to too much drinking, he must now drink hot lava in Hell!

Philanderers must now climb cactus trees naked...

Hmmm, maybe they gossiped too much, so now have to be impaled.

A baby spitfire?

Ah, relaxing Buddha

2nd largest in Thailand!

Bangpra Day Trip

No school today because the teachers have a seminar, something about how to help the students get better grades (hmmm, maybe go to school?!).

Anyway, Jacqueline and I went off exploring the Bangpra area again, to find the ends to what we had previously tried to do. After a most delicious lunch (I wish I could remember the name), we headed to the Butterfly Garden. The guard did not want to let us in, as he said it was closed. However, we had just followed a huge Chinese tour bus through the gate, so we were confused as to why he was telling us that it was closed. I whispered to Jacqueline that if we continue to just sit here and question him, and speak our horrible Thai, eventually he's going to have to give up -- which he did. So, we followed the group of Chinese tourists through to the ticket counter, where we continued to walk, as they did. They tried to stop us, but we looked back, smiled, motioned that we were with the group, and kept on walking. No more questions asked. Well, there were no butterflies in the butterfly garden!!!! We followed the tour into the building, which displayed random dioramas of ancient Thai people, I suppose, doing something. There were no English captions, and the tour guide was a smartly dressed man speaking Chinese.

Following further, we came across glass window cases that displayed honey jars. Hmmm... now, you tell me, what does honey have to do with butterlies - the butterflies that don't exist in the Butterfly Garden? Well, we never did find out. After another 15 minutes of total randomness, we left.

Off to Chan Ta Then Waterfall, which we had previously tried to go to, but it was closed. Once we came past the gate, we didn't know which way to turn, so we chose the wooden path that led into the jungle bush, a more likely guess than the cement paved road, especially since we were not allowed to bring the motorbike in. Well, we chose wrong to say the least. After the path ended, we ended up in the jungle, and while still on a path, we both a sense that we were heading the wrong direction.

So, we turned around, walked down the cement paved road for about 1/2 hour, and then finally came across a stream. So, we headed upwards, came across a group of Thais eating a late lunch and drinking Whiskey on the rocks. They told us the waterfall was quite a ways up, but to be careful and that it's beautiful. So, up, up we went... once again, trekking through the water and rock hopping (as we did in Koh Chang). We never did reach the waterfall, as it was getting late, and we didn't want to drive back to Sri Racha in the dark. But, as it goes in Thailand, it's all about the journey, never the destination. And, who knows if the waterfall would have been anything more than what we were already coming across along the path of the rocky stream... as waterfalls in Thailand are not what we consider waterfalls, but rather rapids? maybe...

Photos below:

LOL: O.k., so you tell me, what is a dinosaur doing on this sign?

A wonderful quote....

The group of Thais we came across: