The Final-ish Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of school. I’d finished classes the week before, making over 400 Thai-English Apples to Apples cards so the students could play this super fun game while I snapped photos of them.

Apples to Apples (Thai Style) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Preggo Baby Update!

When we stopped by Lung Geet’s, he told us that Preggo Baby had her kittens! Three black and white ones that Lung Geet calls Panda (yes, all three have the same name).

Hang Chat Spotlight: Lung Ween and Lung Geet

With just a few weeks left in Hang Chat, we're happy to present another Spotlight feature on our favorite people and places in our little town. 
 
In this post, I'll introduce you to three of our favorite adoptive family members: Lung (Uncle) Ween and his wife (Mrs. Lung Ween, of course) and Lung Geet (we think that’s what he said).  

Lung Ween and his wife run a typical Thai restaurant in the giant front room of their home. Sara and I love their fried rice; it is the most flavorful in town by a mile. They are always happy to see us, and we go see them once a week for lunch like clockwork.

Teacher’s Day

Today was Teacher’s Day, not be confused with Wan Wai Kru. From what I could tell, teachers celebrated by kicking the students out of school, playing bocce ball, and drinking whiskey. Not too shabby.

Monk Visit

I don’t know if the date had any significance, but yesterday a group of monks visited Hang Chat Wittaya School. It was quite an amazing ordeal, and many people from the community joined the students in offering alms. Teachers and students alike lined up around the school with their bags of rice, juice, soymilk, and snacks.

Oh Yeah...Teaching

I realize I don’t post a whole lot about teaching, you know—the main reason I’m here. It definitely has its ups and downs. It is incredibly difficult yet incredibly rewarding. You ride the highs as long as you can because you never know when you’ll hit a wall of frustration and communication breakdown. Believe it or not, it’s totally worth it for me.

Most of my students are at a very low level of English. That might surprise you since they have been taking English classes every year since starting school. There are many reasons for this, some of which I probably don’t even know about. One reason they have such a hard time speaking is that their education doesn’t primarily focus on communication. Most time is spent prepping them for national exams which don’t have a speaking/listening portion. At my school, the other teachers teach grammar and I spend once a week with them working on communication.

Christmas in Thailand

A few days after Thanksgiving, Sara and I headed to Lampang to check out the brand new mall, Central Lampang. We've been in more malls during our seven months in Thailand than we ever were in America, but something was different about this particular visit; the whole place had been taken over by Christmas "cheer". They had a massive decorated Christmas tree, the stores were jammed with decorations and, hardest to swallow, Christmas songs blared through the mall's sound system. Missing out on the "holiday season" and the music that went with it was probably my number two reason for wanting to come to Thailand, so it was difficult to accept their presence here in our home away from home.

We were happy to find out that, for the most part, no one here really knows or cares about Christmas, it is just an excuse to celebrate and spend more money. The exception was at Sara's school. Her students worked for several days decorating the school in anticipation of the holiday, including an honest to Godness manger scene that included a baby Jesus doll that was later found decapitated.

I’ve Reached a Turning Point…

My perspective has changed since arriving here 4 1/2 months ago. It wasn’t an overnight switch, but a gradual shift from an American consciousness to a more Thai-ish consciousness. I’ve got an entirely new “normal.”

Hang Chat Spotlight: PaPan

May I present a new section of our blog, Hang Chat Spotlight, where we’ll give you a peek into our daily lives by introducing someone very special to us. Today I’d like you to meet PaPan (Aunt Pahn).

Yeah Yeah, I know…

We haven’t written in awhile. There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, not a lot has been going on in Hang Chat. We’ve settled into jungle living and have a pretty good daily routine going. Also, I’ve been very busy with school stuff—lesson planning, script writing, game creating. I know, there’s no excuse. But hold tight: we will soon have pictures up of Sukhothai. Until then, please enjoy this video of our furry wild rabbit friends:

Matty little buggers but they really couldn’t be more lovable.

Wan Wai Kru (Teacher Appreciation Day)

Today was teacher appreciation day at Hang Chat Wittaya. There was a big ceremony where students presented the teacher and principal with beautiful pan (bouquets) decorated with hand-folded banana leaves and fresh flowers.

Geckos sound like birds.

And their poop looks like mouse poop. And since they crawl everywhere, they poop everywhere—that’s the main reason we sleep under a mosquito net. There you go: more than you ever wanted to know about geckos.

So what’s it like living in the jungle house? It’s like camping—cabin camping, and it’s a good thing I love camping.

The Jungle House

A couple of representatives from my school headed down to Bangkok to pick up Jack and me. As soon as I met Pii Pan and Lung Janevit (Uncle Jane), they gave me big hugs and told me that they were going to be my Thai aunt and uncle while I’m here. How sweet! Since it was already late in the day and would take about 8-10 hours to drive to Hang Chat, they decided we should leave the next day. They told me we can stay at the Louis Tavern hotel another night. OK!

The next morning Pii Pan would call me and we would head home. Oops, Uncle Jane was getting the car inspected so it would be later. After a few more setbacks (mai ben rai!), we started our long journey at 4pm.

We stopped for dinner in Sing Buri at a cute little place on the river. The sun was setting and the view was beautiful.

omgomgomgomg squeeeeee!!!

Guess what--no wait, I'll tell you! I got my placement today!!!