Loy Krathong Making

The weekend of the 20th and 21st of November is the time where a lot of people throughout Asia celebrate 'Loy Krathong'. On the Saturdays Clem and myself made our own Loy Krathongs with P-Pui.

Let me tell you, to start with I was very confused with all the folding of the banana leaves but I gradually understood it and got into the swing of things. :)

As the day went on, I gradually increased the Krathong to this finished product.

As well as making these two Krathongs, we also made two with P-Aim's family on the Sunday. Unfortunately, on the way, One of the pedals on Clem's bike came off so she couldn't ride it to P-Aims house!

It was quite funny as they Clem and P-Aim had to ride together which Clem wasn't to happy about and then P-Aim kept on riding faster and faster and me on my little bike with no gears had to pedal so much so keep up.
We managed to get there without anymore incidents and made our second Krathongs with P-Aims family.

As I already knew the confusing folding and such, I managed to take my own spin on the design and made a small Krathong with a large number of flowers.

It was such a fun weekend as making Krathongs only happens once a year and it was great to be a part of it. :)

Baking and Making with an Oven

We met some friends of P-Aim who she learnt English with and they incited us to come and bake with them as the place where they are staying has an oven. We jumped at the chance as we are missing food that you can only use an oven for. For instance, cakes, roast dinner, lasagna, the list goes on.

To start with, we made chocolate brownies! We even doubled the mixture so we had more as well. We managed to create a bit of a mess but that's all in the package of baking cakes.

Next we had some lunch. We made our own Som Tam which was really delicious and gave us the strength for the carrot cake which was next on out list.

Like usual, we managed to make some form of mess yet again but we carried on and created a huge carrot cake.

Last but not least, we watched P-Da make her no recipe cookies. It's amazing as she just adds in ingredients without measuring or reading a book. They tasted amazing though.

After we had baked the cakes and cleaned up the mass mess, we sat and ate fruit so some part of the day was healthy. Let me tell you, we had a lot. Logan berries, two types of mango, pineapple, passion fruit, papaya, some form of apple and some other fruits that I cant name. I think that cancels out the amount of cake eaten throughout the day.

In the evening, we rented a movie. We ended up watching Shutter Island which I had never seen. It was actually really good. The only problem was that when we were back home, we went exploring in the school grounds looking for a source of music but we ended up getting really freaked and had to practically run back home as we were still a bit mind boggled by the film and it's scary music. Thankfully, I managed to sleep without any nightmares of being crazy so it's all good.

Teaching in a Technical College

Ok, so now I'm back from Chiang Mai, Myself and Clem have moved into our house and have started teaching the students. Let me tell you, teaching them can be a nightmare at times. To start with they hardly know any English and that doubled up with my not very good Thai, means that communication can be a problem at times.

I have basically started from scratch doing my first lessons on the basic of numbers and introductions. They have managed to go well as well. The first few lessons I did were a bit shaky as I was as nervous as mouse faced with a cat but I pulled through and survived and now I'm teaching with alot more confidence. (Although I still need to gain some more). I will quickly summarise what the students already knew. "Hello teacher", "How are you?", "I'm fine thank you. And you?", "I like teacher", "Beautiful", "sexy" and "I love teacher". As you can see there is some work to be done.

I have to teach two hour lessons. Unfortunately I can never manage to teach for that long. I never really have to though as my students always turn up 30minutes to 1 hour late and that's if they turn up at all! Sometimes when I enter the room all they say is "teacher, check names, go home". They haven't quite figured out that that's not going to work though. One fun thing in the lessons is trying to get them to come up to the front to say the conversation we are doing that lesson. They are all so shy and try to hide, say no and even move to the other side of the room thinking that I cant see them do it. The tricks never work though. Some students even point out who I haven't chosen as well so everyone has to do it!

The house we have moved into is actually really nice. It's quite big so Clem and myself mainly keep to the top floor. For the first few weeks we had no water or electricity which can the feeling of camping just with a nicer bed and sturdier roof. Thankfully it's all fixed now so we can do everything we need to. The only weird thing is that we live in the school grounds so all the students know where we live and when ever we walk home to pick something up, we hear shouts of "Hello teacher" and "My name is .......". It can get a bit scary at times when you are on your own.

That's basically it. The main thoughts and stuff on the beginnings of teaching and our nice new house.

The Chiang Mai Experience

Ok, so for the past 3 weeks I have been in Chiang Mai with Clem and the other 16 volunteers learning Thai at AUA learning centre.

Learning Thai has been such a good experience and it was really fun as well. We had to be at AUA for 10am in the mornings Monday to Friday and didn't finish till 3pm with 1 hour lunch break in-between. In total, over the three weeks, we all did 60 hours of Thai language learning! We all managed to learn quite a lot of stuff as well which will help for when I start teaching and the students don't know any English.
We were all split into two groups and the teacher we had in group A was called Joy. (This was her nickname as it was much easier to say than her Thai name :p) Her lessons were really fun as she incorporated a lot of different games and at times we were in two different teams which made us get quite competitive with each other! We played games like charades, hot potato and such! Fun times :) I have never been that good at languages but I did all right while I was there so its all good I just have to remember it all when i'm in Si Saket! It all sounds like fun and games huh? Well that's true until the final day in where we had to do a final exam :( It included three different sections and we had 2 hours to do them all. Thankfully it wasn't too hard but I did have to guess some questions as everything was in Thai! Afterwards we were all taken to the Chiang Mai culture centre to learn about the Chiang Mai history which was quite fun as our tour guide was a lady-boy! :p Our fun times were short lived though as when we got back, we were given our tests back and a certificate with our mark on! Thankfully I managed to get 33 out of 40 so I didn't really have anything to worry about :) One worry off my chest, just the fact that I have soon got to start teaching in a Technical College where the students don't want to learn and such. Joy told us that Technical Colleges were the worst places to teach as the students don't want to learn, they wont turn up and they might even pull tricks on us!! What a way to fill us with confidence! Oh well i'm sure we will be fine... :s

Well thats basically all what happened AUA wise in Chiang Mai so now I will give an brief description of what happened at the weekends. On the first Friday, it was one of the volunteers 18th birthday. Well that just means that we should go and celebrate :) We found a pretty awesome bar called THC but we all called it the roof-top-bar as it was on a roof! You could out over loads of the city as long as it wasn't raining :p The only problem it had was that you had to up quite a few stairs to get up to it so it can get a bit risky when you have had a bit of the old alcohol! ;) In the first weekend our host family came up to Chiang Mai as their eldest daughter goes to university in Chiang Rai. We went with them on Saturday to a small village and stayed their overnight. It was really nice and peaceful there, the only problem was that in the evening, we had a power cut so had to spend all evening in the pitch black as there were no street lamps of any kind. Thank goodness for torches and the light of the phone! Luckily, it was back on in the morning so we could all do the stuff we needed. We then went shopping and Clem and myself got pictures painted on the back of our phones :) I got a purple elephant which I have now named Geoffry :p I also got a small 5 Baht keyring which is a small ginger doll so we now joke that it's like the 'little me' from Coroline!
In the second weekend all 18 of us went elephant trekking in the jungle! It was an amazing experience even though it was so stupidly hot! We went into waterfalls and trekked quite a way to get to the little village where we were staying. Were we stayed was a nice place the only problem was that we went to sleep kind of early as we were tired but one of the guides had gotten a bit tipsy and kept on coming in saying 'Are you sleeping?' and 'You are not sleeping' and it got quite freaky especially when he came under the mosquito net and tried to grab our legs :p Luckily he eventually went away and we were able to sleep in peace. On the second day we split into 2 groups and while one group went on the elephants, the others went to another waterfall. It was so much fun especially on the elephants although when we were going down hill we had to be careful not to slip off the seats which was quite and effort! Afterwards we went rubber rafting and bamboo rafting. The rubber rafting was hilarious as in our boat was Clem, Frances and myself and we had such a laugh when we capsized and kept on getting stuck. One the most memorable moments was when a massive spider jumped in the boat so I jumped out and then had to run after the boat as the current was taking it away from me! It was quite a sight :p The other funny moment was when we where getting out and I slipped on a rock and the current started to take me away downstream and people had to come and grab me so I wouldn't float away! The bamboo rafting was more relaxed as we had a Thai person doing the steering and such. Clem and myself spent most of the time dancing and trying not to fall in as the raft was only about 7 pieces of bamboo roped together. Luckily we didn't fall in and made it to the other end relatively dry :p Unfortunately, in the last weekend we had to go back to Si Saket so on the final few days we all went to go out and celebrate all of our final days in Chiang Mai and the fact that we wouldn't be seeing each other again for a while until we all travel to meet them.

So, there is the update of the goings on in Chiang Mai. The next instalment will be entitled The Start of Teaching. :)

Si Saket Catch-up

Ok so I know that I haven't updated in lets just say quite a while but that is due to the fact that E-Blogger wanted a google account and such which was a tad annoying :p This is just a catch up of the last bits of Si Saket up to Chiang Mai. Not much happened in this time apart from a few major things so you shall hear about them.

First thing to write about is the 'Car Free Day' that we took part in. Basically we heard from our friend the textiles teacher that she was taking part in this Car Free Day so we decided to join in with P-Aim, Yok Soyai and Fah Sai. We had to be out in front of SISAT college at 6.30am on a Sunday! Not the nicest time to be out especially when you have to get up at 5.15am to leave at 6! The ironic thing was that our bikes were already at the college and we were at our Hosts House and our host parents wouldn't let us walk the 2 minute walk to the college so we had to go by some other means. We started our Car Free Day being driven in a car to the college. Hmmmm. It was quite embarrassing as the people who were already there saw two white people being driven to the Car Free Day. One more way to stick out in Si Saket! :p Well we picked up our bikes and went to the front of the school to find quite a few people all out there. We were given free tops and then had to get our blood pressure taken to make sure that we were fit enough to do the bike ride! I was a tad nervous and it felt really weird but it was taken and I was told that it was good! :) My blood pressure is 110/95. WE were then able to get a drink and some food as it was breakfast and during this time, because we are the one of the only white ones in Si Saket, we had to pose for a stupid amount of photos with a banner and such. One would be taken and a few seconds later, we would be dragged of for another one! Even random people were asking to take pictures with us too!

We were meant to start at 6.30 but due to the pictures and the Mai Pen Rai of the Thai people, we didn't start till around 7.30am! Both myself and Clem had to start at the front due to our whiteness and we followed a car around the town. It was quite funny as there were a few SISAT students who sat on a train like thing which was driven by a tractor (It was different carriages all stuck together like on a beach) and when ever I was cycling next to them, they just took pictures of me! We cycled around the whole town and then stopped by the train station. I thought that it was just for a rest but then discovered that that was the end! Our Cycle Free Day, was a whole hour and a half long! Although I suppose Cycle Free Couple of Hours doesn't really have as much of an impact! :p We ended up cycling back to SISAT where we saw quite a few people sticking bikes onto the back of their pick-up trucks and driving off home! Looks like other people started off the day in a car as well which made us feel a bit better!

Next we have the first trip to Ubon Ratchathani. P-Aim, Clem and myself were all going to catch a train at around 9ish. Unfortunately we ran a bit behind time and got there after 9 so the train would have gone. We went to buy our tickets and a stroke of luck, our train arrived! It was running late so we caught in perfect time :) It was quite lucky as the next train wasn't for another hour and a half. The train journey was and hour long and I spent most of the time glued to the open window taking pictures of the worlds going by :) When we arrived to met up with P-Oil and Yok Soyai who drove there and went shopping! To start with we went to a big shopping market to look for stuff and it was really nice there mainly because it had air-con :p Next we went to a load of second hand markets which had some good cheap stuff but it was so hot that day and the markets were covered with cloth which just trapped the heat in so you practically died under there! It must have been about 35/36 degrees! A lot compared to over-cast England :p Afterwards we went to Big C for you guessed it, ice cream! It really cooled us down and prepared us for the journey back in the car where we slept for a whole hour :p

Next we have the day where Clem and myself taught our very first proper lesson. Sounds easy huh? Well not when it was being filmed for a documentary done by a famous Thai TV star!!! What a way to start teaching :p We were told to do the English lesson because we were the English volunteers and we were wondering if they had gone crazy as we had never taught a lesson or any of those students before! We did it though. It was a bit weird as we had to rehearse the lesson with the students so on the final day, it felt a bit fake as they all knew the answers and what to do but that might have been better than having their blank faces filmed when they couldn't understand us as they don't know much English. That morning we were both a nervous wreck and when the film crew all turned up with their huge camera's and fuzzy microphone thing we had to do a lot to stop ourselves from running out of the room screaming for England! One good thing was that the famous Thai TV star who was doing the documentary was very good looking ;) We taught the kids different occupations and then did some games and it all went really well :) At the end we were told to sing a song with all and we decided to do the Hokey Cokey! The Hokey Cokey with 16 year olds! It went really well and they all had a laugh. The only problem was that when the 'And shake yourself about' came around, the camera was on Clem and myself which probably doesn't look very flattering :p Oh well. We then watched the Chinese lesson and then were able to get into some picture with the TV star which was pretty good especially as one was on Clem's camera so we will have a copy :) We later found out that they all wanted to interview Clem and myself but as we couldn't speak Thai, they didn't :( Well, that was the morning over and done with. Not something you do every day I suppose.

The final things to add in happened on the same night. These are the dance at the retirement party and P-Oil's farewell party. The dance happened first and we had to spend a whole day in the TVET centre having our hair and make-up done. It was good at it was nice and cool but it got a bit boring at times. To start with, we had our hair done. First, it was put into a ponytail on the top of our heads and then twisted around so we had a bun on the very top of our head. Next we had three massive buns one on top of the other put on our head as well. They were really heavy and black which looked a bit funny when sat on top of my ginger head but that was remedied when some black spray on hair dye was bought! To start with it was just going onto Clem's head but our lady-boy hair and make-up artist told me to sit in such a commanding way, I couldn't refuse! So, by the end of that little adventure, to everyone out there, I had black hair like a true Thai person! Next came the make-up. It took a while and involved my face getting a few inches thicker but by the end I though I looked quite decent :) After that we had to put on our Thai dress. It involved four different parts and when on did not flatter me at all! (Some time soon I will figure out how to put pictures up for you all) Well, it was all finished and for the next few hours, I relaxed listening to my I-pod when I wasn't grabbed for pictures. I would be in a picture and then one person would change and the picture would be taken again and then another person would change as well! After a few minutes of this that picture would be over only for myself to be grabbed by another person! It's weird being so known here whereas in England nothing like this would happen! Evening eventually came and we all went out to do our dances. So many weeks of rehearsals had built up to this one night so some of us were pretty nervous especially Clem and myself. We were the third dance and when the music started we all went up and performed on stage. The only problem was that something went wrong with the music so we had no lyrics to listen to! We held it together though and danced with no lyrics until a microphone was found and the lyrics sung out by people there! It was hilarious when we left the stage and we were so happy that nothing else went wrong. Luckily we didn't show the fact that something was wrong to the audience :p Once it was all over we sat down to eat and after a while had to pose in a number of pictures and dance on stage whilst the Director was singing! It was really good as we all followed one person so we all did the same thing while other people just danced in little groups. Once it was all over, we got changed and went out for P-Oils farewell party. To start with we went to a bar and chatted and such and we then went to the I-Bar. There we must have lost some weight from the amount of dancing we did! We ended up leaving at about 3am! We danced for about 5 hours straight! I didn't know I had it in me :P

So, there are all the main and interesting things that have happened in Si Saket. Stay tuned for the next episode titled 'The Chiang Mai Experience'.

It's week 3 people :)

Ok so now I have been in Thailand for 26 days and still the excitement is rolling in :)

Ok so this last week started out with all of the usual of having to go to college and just carry on relaxing. :) Not as much has happened like the other weeks but I shall sum up the interesting things for you all.

Though it might not sound interesting, I am actually beginning to get away with having rice free breakfasts! Shocking I know. Nowadays I only have rice for lunch and dinner, although next on my list is to have less rice for lunch. Who knows, it might work! :p

We went to teach at the primary school again although this time we had the older children and we taught them body parts. They wee really good and learnt it really quick but were really shy when we taught them heads, shoulders, knees and toes :p it was mainly just myself and Clem singing and the kids doing the actions! They may have been shy with that song but they loved the 'hokey cokey'! To start with they were really shy but when they saw myself and Clem making fools of ourselves dancing along to what we were singing, they joined in and some of them even started to sing all of the words! :) They also loved the games we played and ended up getting really competitive when we put them into teams.

One of the other main things that happened this week was that both Clem and I learnt a dance to show in front of visitors. We learnt it for about an hour on Wednesday and had to show it on Thursday! It was to a Korean pop song and was really funny. We started off by dancing in front of the first set of visitors and the whole school up on-stage! :P I think everyone screamed when we started dancing as we were all teachers and teachers don't often do that sort of thing :p Thankfully it went ok :) I didn't mess up even though they pushed me to the front because I was 'special' (basically white and foreign). You would think that that was it though. I don't think so! We were then told that we had to do the dance again in front of more special visitors and yet again, Myself and Clem were put right at the front! When we got up to dance, because we were white people and dancing, so many people took pictures of us! There were flashes everywhere! We felt like celebrities and ended up being blinded for a few seconds while the flashes went away! As this dance was in front of the Director as well, there was a bit of pressure but it went really well! On the plus side, after we had finished dancing, a few of the male teachers did a dance as well! It was hilarious!

At the weekend we went to see some of our host families friends who have these two little boys who are the cutest things in the world. They were really shy at first but after a while, they let us play with them and they were so sweet :)We also had a musical evening where all the other people who are volenteering came over and we sat there messing around on the guitar, keyboard and harmonicas! Lots of fun and our host father even came and played the guitar for us which as so funny :)

The last thing to tell you about is the car free day we went to on Sunday. We had to get up in the middle of the night (5.15am) and go to the front of the college with our bikes. Unfortunately our bikes were already at college but no one would let us walk the 5 minute walk there! They it would be dark, but it was light! (We get taken everywhere in cars even though nearly everywhere is walkable!). This meant that we started of our car free day by being driven in a car to the college. We were there on time and had to pose for a lot more pictures as we were the two white people :p We were also filmed and found out later that day that we had been on TV! We started of by cycling around the town but it finished really early. I had expected for it to last until early afternoon but it started at 7.30 and finished at 8.30! I think they should change the name to car free hour! Especially as when we were cycling back, people were loading up their bikes onto their pick-up trucks and driving home! I thought it was a bit ironic :p

Well they are the main things which have happened this week. Tune in next week for the next instalment! :p

A week and a bit in Si Saket

Ok, first of all i'm sorry about the long wait but thereis limited internet connection which I can only get at the college where I am doing a lot of other stuff.

Due to the face that this past week and a bit has had a lot of things in it, I am going to split this posting into what I have done in and out of the college.

During college hours both Clem and I tend to relax and not do much to start with but now we are gradually beginning to join classes like textiles and helping other english teachers. We both introduced outselves to the textiles teacher in the college who is such a nice person and she is teaching us how to make a skirt which I shall wear for teaching so you will probably see a photo of it on Flicker st some point. (I recently got Flicker and am slowly putting up photos so everyone can see them). Also when we have helped out in classes, we have always been asked the boyfriend question! Every class! I never knew that it was such an interesting topic and question. :p
Also, the two of us have been asked to help out in the English competitions that take place in Thailand. They involve public speaking, storry telling, crossword (which we just found out was scrabble) and a demonstration such as cooking.
We have also gone to a couple of meetings as well even though we don't understamd Thai! The first one was with the English department and social department where we had to introduce ourselves again! The other meeting was with the whole school staff and included the director. This meeting started at 3pm and did not end untill 7.30!! This was lucky too as sometimes the meeting goes on till about 11pm! I have never been so bored because even though we had to introduce ourselves (again) to everyone and to say a speach about ourselves on the spot (not pleasent) the rest of the meeting was all in Thai which I don't understand yet and I left my book at home so I just sat there for 4 hours not doing much! Thankfully these meeting are only about once a month so its not that bad.
At the school there are students who do army training! Its amazing to watch and when we are in the office, we can always hear them shouting "huh" and other motivation phrases. Both Clem and I thought it would be funny to join them for a day but I doubt I could run in that amount of clothing in that heat!

Outside of school both of us have been doing a number of different things. Last Saturday we went to a couple of temples which was an amazing experience as we were able to watch the people give the monks their daily meal and listen to their chants while evryone prayed. At the second temple we were actually able to meet a monk! We weren't allowed to touch him but he gave us a red woven bracelet which is meant to be special amoung the Thai people.
The food here is divine but having rice for every meal for every day gets a bit too much! Rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner! And to add to all of that, we recently had ice cream with rice on it too! Its too much at times so we have asked really polietly to be given something else as all Thai people eat rice for every day for every meal! Sometimes I just end up craving a potato! To top it all off, I am going to come back home to England at the end of the year and all of my family is going to want me to cook them rice and Thai dishes and I am just going to be wanting crisps and pasta :p.

I think that the best thing that happened to me this week was when both Clem and I went to a Primary school and taught the whole school numbers and colours! We were there for about a hour and a half and we played a number of games with them and taught them some songs such as the rainbow song we learnt as a kid! We were both rally nervous and it was made even worse when we got there to see the whole school sat outside waiting for us! There were about 80 kids who were all really small and tiny and they loved the games we played with them :) I cant wait to go back next week as the kids are so happy and entusiastic!

Ok, so this is the main overview of the past week and a bit. There is probably a lot more that I could have put in but this will probably take you a decade to read anyway so you will just have to wait untill next week.

xXxXx