A month for adventures

The adventures started with a last minute decision to go to Cha-am. Tara and Be and I were planning a trip to Bangkok to do some necessary sight see-ing (Wat Phra Kaew), but it turned into a weekend trip to the beach. Cha-am is close to the more well-known beach, Hua Hin, and was the kind of beach I’ve been looking for. Ko Tao, Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui are beautiful, but going to those places, I didn’t feel like I was in Thailand. At Cha-am, I KNEW I was in Thailand. The water may not be crystal clear turquoise, and the beach may not be glistening white. Instead, you get miles of picnic tables covered with umbrellas, packed with Thai families or groups of college kids, all tables covered in food. It was a total party- Thai style. For 100 bhat, rent out a picnic table for the day, and you will have people coming to your table all day with fresh crab, som tam made on the spot, gaiyang, quail eggs, beer, soda, anything you could possibly need for a perfect day on the beach. There are people actually swimming in the murky water, kids playing on banana boats, everyone having a good time. Unlike the beautiful touristy beaches where everyone is sun tanning, not swimming in the perfect water and there is no good food to be found. I also like how on Thai beaches, everyone wears their tee-shirts and shorts in the water, including myself because I was too embarrassed to show off my two-piece.


Tara and Be and their farang tour guide (me) only got to hang out on the beach, Thai style, for one day. We got there at night and walked along the water while rebellious teenagers shot fireworks off from the beach. We spent the next morning exploring Cha-am and a mangrove forest, then the afternoon was spent on the beach, complete with a picnic table and umbrella, food galore.
On our stop in Bangkok on the way home, I took Tara and Be to my favorite rooftop bar near Chula University, where we slowly sipped the one and only cocktail we could afford, and watched the hazy Bangkok sky cover the stars we were able to see in Cha-am.

The next adventure started the day after Tara and Be and I got back from Cha-am. The director wanted to give a thank you to the foreign teachers, so P’Sonya and a selection of other teachers took Steven, Tara, Be and I to Kao Koh, a mountain in Petchabun. It was just a day trip…a really early 5AM day trip. But Petchabun province is a beautifully preserved province. The air in Petchabun is even crisper than Sukthothai’s rural atmosphere. This was the first time I really spent a lot of time with Ahjan Anick, who teaches “social” or social studies. He’s the goofiest guy ever, and makes his way into any trip in any department. He barely speaks English, but loves to try to talk to me anyway. He likes to call me an alien, and asks for a menu for aliens when we go out to eat. Such a goofball.


Our first stop was at this amazing temple constructed completely of mosaic tiles and odds and ends, situated at the top of a mountain. We spent maybe two hours just exploring the outside, and never even entered the temple because the outside was too much to take in. Absolutely breathtaking.


Thennnn the rest of the day was way less exciting. We slowly made our way up Kao Koh. And by slowly, I don’t mean we made frequent stops. I mean the mountain was so steep that the van was crawling at a snails pace. At one point, we had to get out and walk up part of the mountain, because the van couldn’t carry us anymore. At the top of the mountain was a surprisingly lame palace that resembled a deserted tourist center, and an equally disappointing Vietnam War memorial that was poorly designed, and poorly kempt. Not even any striking views from the top. The trip was short-lived, and once we had made it to the top of Kao Koh, we slowly meandered home, stopping at a temple in Pitsanulok on the way.
(Steven, P'Sonya and myself at a rest stop coming back from Kao Koh)

There was one full day of rest until the next scheduled adventure. The foreign language department wanted to go on a trip to Bangkok. I didn’t really want to go because I am sick of Bangkok, but I needed to meet Noah and it was a free ride to Bangkok, so I went along for the ride. I am actually really happy I went because we went to many temples and museums I had never known about. Of course going on a trip with the foreign language teachers means more taking pictures than actually sight seeing. Though now that I finally have a camera, I am more than happy to join in the picture brigade. We stopped at the Golden Mount for a stunning 360 degree view of Bangkok’s old city, then across the street to Wat Ratchanatdaram, the metal palace of heaven, or something. The first of it’s kind in Thailand, the five story palace winds up towards heaven, housing a copper casted Buddha at the top.

The highlight of the trip for me was Suan Pakkad- literally translated to Cabbage Garden. The tour guide really liked having a farang on the tour (only one farang, because Steven doesn’t count as farang) and joked about this being where the Cabbage Patch kids came from. This old cabbage patch-turned palace houses an amazing collection of artifacts, fossils and crafts from every corner of Thailand, as well as from many countries around the world. This prince that collected all of these things was great- imagine going to every museum in Thailand, taking the coolest thing you can find and putting it together into a humble museum in the middle of Bangkok. I think if this prince were still alive, I would strive to be his best friend, or at least have tea with him in his cool pull out table that is tucked into the floor of the worship room.

After that short tour with the teachers, and meeting with Noah, I was on my way to meet Tara and Be in MALASYIA! Even though I went to buy the train ticket two days in advance (usually more than enough time!) the tickets for a sleeper train to Butterworth, Malaysia were sold out. Shoot. It’s a bit of a long story how I got stuck in this situation, but I ended up on a 3rd class coach train to Hat Yai in southern tourism ridden Thailand. I was dreading dreading dreading the train ride I had been so looking forward to… I’ve been dying to take a sleeper train to Malaysia!! I walked onto the already delayed train, and walked further and further back to 3rd class coach….I wish I could say it wasn’t as bad as you would expect, but it was. I sat in a stiff upright chair, a sweet Thai girl across from me with her pet hamster, then a group of rowdy teenagers across the aisle. These boys seemed to know everyone on the train- they had their friends coming to sit on my armrest the whole ride. I offered one of them to sit next to me so he didn’t block the aisle, and he offered me a sip of his cola. No thank you. This was after they were just passing around what I am hoping was just tobacco. I kept my eyes to the window for the rest of the trip.

Luckily, even though it seems like this was a terrible trip, it actually ended up being a really good thing. I had been talking to a Malaysian guy while we were waiting for the train. He is a well traveled, obviously well off guy that speaks flawless English. He tried to help me switch to a better car, but judging by the look of the ticket collector on the train, there was no hope for me. But my new friend, Zanif, at least rescued me for a few hours. We went to the dining car together and had a couple beers while the sun was setting over the rice paddies. The dining car is the coolest thing I’ve ever discovered- windows open all the way, people coming in and out, all sharing tables with strangers. Zanif and I were talking about places we have traveled to recently, when another Malaysian asked to join us. Kris is younger than Zanif, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s, and also speaks flawless English, his style more punk rocker, than Zanif’s pristine big words English. Kris’s first question, before he asked my name, was “Republican or Democrat?” We spent hours talking about American and Malaysian politics, a perfect briefing into a quick tour of their country.

When I returned to my seat, I fell right asleep. For having an uncomfortable upright chair, I slept much better than I do on the overnight bus to Bangkok from Sukhothai. I think it was the rocking of the train and the open window with the fresh air off the coast rushing through the window. There was a slim quiet guy sitting in the seat next to me when I got back. He sat upright the entire time, never moving an inch until he got off the bus at 2 in the morning. His seat was quickly taken by a nomad on the train. I had seen this guy and his friend roaming around the train all evening, looking for free seats. He promptly fell asleep, instantly letting his head fall onto my shoulder. I elbowed him the first few times, and he rocked back upright, eyes still closed, then slouched back onto me, each time allowing a tad more weight onto me. Defeated, I inched as close as I could to the window and turned my back to him for him to sleep on.

Zanif saved me again in the morning. I joined him for a cup of coffee, soon followed by Kris, eyes red and glazed from too much fun the night before. Zanif laughed at how easily I slept- he had a bottom bunk on the sleeper car and couldn’t sleep a wink, while I slept an only slightly interrupted night through. We continued our political discussions from the night before and planned out our different routes to Malaysia. We got to Hat Yai, only three hours delayed, and Kris led us to get bus tickets out of the sad little town. Hat Yai actually just had a bombing two days before we were there- a car bomb that killed 5 and sent I think hundreds to the hospital. The town was quiet- though very clean and not very Thai. I felt like I had entered another country already, but I wasn't yet sure if it was Malaysia or not. With only 15 minutes to get on a bus, I was out of the town quickly, with only enough time to catch a news report about the bomb from a couple days ago.

I thought the bus ride would be low key compared to the eventful night before, but apparently Malaysians like me and I made another new friend. A Malaysian man and his wife showed me what became my favorite Malaysian food: nasi lemak, rice cooked with coconut milk, topped with a spicy sauce, hardboiled egg and salted fish. Amazing, and only cost one ringgit; roughly 30 cents. Every rest stop along the 9 hour journey, this couple was at my side, showing me new food, telling my what to do in Malaysia, and insisting I come with them to Terrengu sometime to go scuba diving. After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, I got the usual bombardment of taxi drivers I get anywhere I go in Asia. This time, I told them the hotel I needed to get to, and the taxi just shook his head, and said sorry I can’t take you there. Annoyed, waiting for some kind of catch, I shrugged him off and went to get my bags and find my new friend, thinking to myself “whatever, I’ll just get there myself”. The taxi driver followed me and kept saying “can't drive there”. I stopped to listen to him, and he just pointed down the road and said “two streets. I can’t drive there, because there is a market. You walk, two streets”. Haha woops. So my new friend escorted me to the street, and easy 5 minute walk to the hotel.

Tara and Be were already waiting at the hotel, having already spent the day in Kuala Lumpur. Our one full day in Kuala Lumpur was indeed a successful one. We went on an adventure to Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine engulphed inside a limestone cave outside the city. You have to climb 272 steps to get to it, a journey well worth it, even in the pouring rain. The inside of the cave is huge, at least three stories tall, and we were there at the perfect time- when the thunder was close enough that it echoed through the cavern into the opening on the other side. Eerie, but so cool.

The venture to Batu Caves was followed by a walk through downtown Kuala Lumpur to see the Petronas Towers, the largest twin skyscrapers in the world. I like this tidbit about Malaysia, I learned it from Zanif: Apparently, the Deputy Prime Minister, Yassin, is a clever fellow and came up with the idea to build the Petronas Towers. At the time of their construction, it was the tallest structure ever built. But Yassin knew by the time they would be finished, someone else would be building the new tallest skyscraper, which Taiwan indeed did, followed by Dubai. So he said to build twin skyscrapers- because no one will want to build two buildings that tall. So though Taiwan and Dubai have surpassed Kuala Lumpur’s superlative of tallest skyscraper, the Petronas Towers still hold the title of tallest twin skyscrapers in the world, and fuel I suppose a decent share of tourism from it. Honestly, standing below the Petronas Towers…they’re not THAT breathtaking. After climbing 272 steps into a natural cave to worship Shiva for free, paying 50 rinngits to go inside the Petronas Towers was really unappealing. Taking pictures from outside was enough for me, especially because my new camera is so much fun. This is the Petronas Towers in “fish eye effect”. And the Petronas towers at night.

That evening, I thought it would be a good idea to go to “Bing Walkway” which is reported to have great sidewalk cafes and live jazz music. I guess I was missing Philly, and not thinking about what sidewalk cafes and jazz music would mean for Kuala Lumpur. It was an incredibly Hi So tacky scene- crawling with rich foreigners and expensive western food. So we hopped a couple side streets down and found an awesome street that our tour book missed out on, filled with endless Malaysian food, with oodles of menus to chose from. We ate like royalty under the street lights- complete with sting ray for 7 ringits…roughly 2 dollars.

Our fun in Kuala Lumpur was short lived, as we were hopping on a train back north the next day. But honestly, I am not that sad we couldn’t spend more time there. I liked Kuala Lumpur- but it’s definitely having some identity issues. Sandwiched between Bangkok and Singapore, I think KL can’t make up its mind. Its transit strives to mimic Singapore's, but it’s as terribly executed as Bangkok’s. Actually that’s not true- Bangkok may not have much public transit, but it works really well, I guess because its so new. KL’s transit is OLD, and desperately needs renovation. While there is some beautiful old architecture in KL, and a wonderful blend of colonial European with modern Islamic architecture, it seems like the whole city is under construction still. The trains, the train station, everything.
It has this feel of being a city still under construction, still being built, yet has incredible history that I am worried won’t be preserved. It’s a little sad really.

At least there is still a train that goes to Butterworth, and we were off first thing in the morning. The train ride was spectacular, but ended in a not so spectacular place. Butterworth is strange! It is a huge transportation junction between Thailand and Singapore, yet you disembark from the train into an industrial wasteland. I don’t know if Butterworth has an actual city, but if it does, it is not within sight from the train station. We took a gloomy walk to the bus station to hop on a bus north to the border. Of the few hours I spent in Butterworth, I could not tell you a darn thing about it other than its creepy.

We spent that night close to the border in a town called Kuala Perlis. The town itself is sad. I thought, being a major seaport to Malaysia’s finest archipelago, the town would at least be a little booming. But we stayed in the only hotel we could find, which had four windowless-make-you-claustrophobic rooms. Good thing Tara and Be and I really like each other, though it was still an incredibly uncomfortable night. We took a walk around the dead town (trying to wear ourselves out so we could quickly fall asleep), and I do have to give some credit to the town. At least more than I give to Butterworth. We walked to the waterfront to find a beautiful (and incredibly expensive) hotel that faced the Andaman Sea. We trespassed onto their private pier that went right into the sea, and watched as lateral bolts of lighting lit up the sky over the sea. We also found the border of Thailand. We decided not to trespass on that one. Instead we snuck onto the grounds of a mosque that we mistook for another hotel in the pouring rain.

The next morning, we were in Langkawi, a 99 island archipelago on the northernmost tip of Malaysia’s border. They call it a “geopark” because it is filled with the most amazing geology that I didn’t have enough time to even start exploring. We gave ourselves only one day to enjoy the island, and paid the same amount of money for a bungalow on the beach as we did in that stupid hotel the night before. We were running out of money at this point, so we had to limit our adventures on the island. Really unfortunate timing. As we were about to head to a waterfall, we discovered parasailing that we had accidentally bargained down to 20 USD. It’s been Tara’s dream to go parasailing, so we took the opportunity, and one by one spent twenty minutes suspended in the air, magnificently viewing the mountains, eagles, and shimmering turquoise water around the 99 islands. Well worth it. I will definitely come back to Langkawi one day.

Despite our lack of money, we had to take advantage of Langkawi being duty free, and got a bottle of Jack Daniels that would have cost twice as much anywhere else (Thailand's love of whiskey in infectious). We found a Thai woman selling beer (Langkawi is almost dry because of the Muslim population, but it is balanced by the liquor depot and occasional Thai selling beer) that would take our baht. Like rebellious teenagers, we snuck our goods onto the beach for sunset. We took a dive right as the sun was setting, but our party was shortlived when Be got stung by a nasty jellyfish. A really nasty one! He quickly jumped out of the water, and he immediately had tentacle shaped slashes all over his arm. I’ve never seen a jellyfish sting that bad, it was kinda scary. I’m still coming back to Langkawi one day though.

After our one day of jellyfish infested paradise, we were heading back up the coast of Thailand to the country’s most popular tourist destination: Phuket. And man, there is nothing worse than Phuket on a tight budget, but we made do quite elegantly. We stayed at a boring hotel in Phuket town, instead of a bungalow on the beach. This was not because the bungalow was too expensive (it was actually also the same price as that stupid hotel in Kuala Perlis), but it was getting to the beach bungalow that was the problem. It cost the same to get there by taxi as it was to stay there for a night, so we made do in town. I was happy with this decision, because then I got to check out Phuket town’s totally rad Sino-Portuguese architecture. Who goes to Phuket to check out the architecture? I may be the only one.

After I had my fill of looking at poorly restored historic houses (poor Tara and Be), we rented a super cute jeep (named Suthep!!! I didn’t name it that either, but it was a sure sign that we had to rent it) and headed to the beach! We hugged the southern coast of Phuket, checking out the local beaches with the best food. We spent our beach time on Kata, which my tour book told me would have stunning limestone cliffsides. I didn’t see any of that, but I did get to swim in the famous turquoise blue Phuket waters, and lay in the pristine white sand. The pristine white sand had spattterings of trash all over it, and was covered in umbrellas and chairs filled with tourists. But it was still lovely. I didn’t get to see any fish though. Sad.

In the afternoon, we headed to Phuket’s newest attraction-in-progress, the Big Buddha. This Buddha is massive, and gorgeous, sitting on top of Phuket’s highest mountain. You can see it from almost any beach in Southern Phuket. Dare I say, it is as stunning as “Christ the Redeemer” in Brazil. Well I’ve never been to Brazil, so I can’t say that for sure, but I bet the Big Buddha comes close. It has only been under construction for the past 10 years, and has quite a few years to go, but it is truly amazing. And somewhere on the Big Buddha, there will be a tile saying our names on it!



For the last evening of our trip, Tara and I had promised ourselves we would go out for a Hi So dinner in Phuket. And we totally rocked it. We dressed the best we have since we’ve been in Thailand, headed up the coast to Hat Surin, and scoped out the most picture perfect restaurant we could find on the beach. We found a perfectly lit restaurant, just far enough away from the water to give us that perfect ocean breeze. We sipped our mojitos and had my favorite deep fried fish on the bone with garlic, with green curry and mixed vegetables. A true delight.


On the way back to Phuket town, we got caught in a wicked storm (what’s with the south and these storms? Why don’t they come up to Sawankhalok?!) We pulled over to watch it come in from the ocean. Sitting in the back of the jeep, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, waiting for T-Rex to appear behind the next bolt of lightning over the ocean.

The end of our adventure ended up being longer than our stay on Phuket. We took a bus to Surrathani, where we had to wait for 12 hours for the next train to Bangkok! Genius trip planner (that’s me) didn’t think about it being a Sunday night of a three day weekend, that just so also happened to be a full moon weekend (which means full moon party at Koh Phan Ngan, just off the coast of Suratthani), an upcoming major holiday this week, and the King’s cousin’s funeral in Bangkok on Monday. Basically what all that means is I picked the worst possible time to catch a train to Bangkok. So we tried to kill 12 hours in Surrathani, another depressing transfer/port town. We took several buses and taxis to try to find anything to do, but just wasted money on looking for nothing, except a decent seafood lunch on a river. So we spent the rest of our wait time at a coffee shop watching horror movies, then sitting on a mat in front of the train station finishing our bottle of Jack Daniels. Sad.

But it was all totally worth it because I FINALLY got to go on my sleeper train! And it was so totally cool. By the time our hour-delayed train got in, I fell right asleep on my top bunk and slept soundly through the swaying night.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

I had just come back from Bangkok the day before my birthday. I walked up to school late (I don’t have to be there at 8 anymore, but everyone else does, but I didn’t think it would matter if I came in at 9) and walked into a meeting I didn’t know was happening. Of course they had been waiting for me...did they even know I was in Sawankhalok? I never told them I was coming in that day. I walk in, and they say, “Oh! This is Korin, she is the Fulbright”. And this group of 4 white people chorus “ohhh you’re the Fulbright!” Great job Korin, way to make Fulbright look good.

These four white people were from Wisconsin and came to Thailand for 3 weeks for an exchange program with our school. And they were getting the coolest tour of Sukhothai. For the first day of their trip, they were being taken to Thung Salium, the neighboring town. I took the liberty of tagging along, self-appointing myself as the American ambassador that can help with explaining Thai cultural intricacies in the education system that may interest American teachers. Really, I just wanted to go to these temples in Thung Salium I had never been to! We went to three incredibly different temples- one is the oldest in...the district? The region? I’m not sure what the superlative is, but I AM sure that there is a piece of Buddha himself encased in a relic thingy in the museum. For real. When Siddhartha Buddha himself was incinerated, I guess his ashes had been preserved and spread to various temples (mostly still in India), and Thung Salium has a tiny share! I think we fought over it with Burma for a while, as seems to be a common theme with important Buddhist objects (ahem. Emerald Buddha), but now it is safely tucked away in an unprotected random museum in the middle of Thung Salium that nobody visits and I’ve never heard of. I feel like this is a big deal, and I really don’t know why I just found out about it. I also just found out that we have BAT CAVES!!! in Thung Salium. Like really popular ones that are supposed to be really cool. And I would have been able to tell you all about them, but as we were leaving the third temple, we got hit by the biggest storm I had ever seen in Sawankhalok. Well, I haven’t seen any storms in Sawankhalok- because it hasn’t rained since I moved here. We had all just donated some money to the temple to participate in a prayer of dropping 108 satang coins into little cups (don’t know what the action meant, and why 108, but it was really fun), and we were getting ready to head to the bat caves, when it started downpouring and lightening and thundering like crazy. I guess they thought this was a “mai bpen rai” situation and continued to drive through the storm when the car in front of us (the director’s workers who were carrying our picnic dinner) almost got crushed by a falling tree! The tree fell inches in front of them, and blocked the road to the bat caves. Almost in unison, all the Thai teachers exclaimed what great luck! It’s because we just gave a donation to the temple and prayed to Buddha. I thought that was fantastic- makes me love Buddhism. So we took our good luck and picnic dinner to the director’s (incredibly huge) house, and enjoyed Som Tam, Gaiyang and Khao Nieow, while watching the sky outside turn amazing colors as the sun was setting through the storm.


I didn’t have any expectations for my birthday. All I wanted to do on my birthday was go to a temple and give an offering to the monks. When my dad grew up in Thailand, that is what he did on his birthday every year. I didn’t really know how to actually do it, and Tara and Be, being the wonderful people they are, said they would come with me, but they didn’t know what to do either. We bought the basket of food, candles and flowers, but weren’t sure what to do from there….and no one else was being particularly helpful. So I asked Kru Pet to take us (I always feel like he helps us the most, so I always ask him last- I feel bad always asking him, but then he’s the only one who ever actually helps us). He picked us up in the morning, and took us to Wat Sawan Rusaaraam (something like that…) on the other side of the river. None of us, including Kru Pet, had ever been there, but it is closely affiliated with our school. Thank goodness Kru Pet was with us. He casually strolled into the temple, found the head monk eating breakfast, prayed to him, and told him we were teachers from Sawananan and came here to see him. The monk was so so happy. He spent over an hour talking to us, telling us the history of the temple and about the monk who founded it, who also founded our school, and told us that he was so lucky to have three foreigners come to him that day. He assumed that we were Christian, and was so happy to be able to expand our prayers to Buddha. He told us, you we pray in a Buddhist temple, your right hand prays to Buddha, and your left hand prays to the God of your choosing. When you pray in Buddhism, you can pray to any God. This is a very rough translation from the monk, to Kru Pet who said it in easy Thai for Be, than from Be to us, and then from my memory. So don’t take what I just said for fact. In any case, the monk was really happy we were there, and gave all four of us an amulet of the monk that founded the temple and our school. I thought Kru Pet was going to explode with joy- especially because this monk doesn’t usually give out amulets this special. Kru Pet estimated these amulets cost about 500 bhat each, and it is infinitely better to receive them from a monk than to buy it yourself. Chok tdi mak. AND THEN Kru Pet told the monk it was my birthday, so he gave me another extra cute little amulet! SO exciting! So I gave him my offering, and then we poured water into a cup while he gave us a blessing. We took the water outside, and watered a banyan tree. COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER and was so much more than I was expecting. He also told us if we ever need to go anywhere, we can come to the temple and borrow their van. Then he had one of the monks accompany us to the museum across the street that has all the history of Sawankhalok and Sri Satchanalai, including many ceramics from an 1974 excavation, and many of the belongings of the monk that founded our school. Who else can say they had a monk as a body guard to a museum? Soo cool.

We finished our wonderful morning with lunch at my favorite noodle restaurant on the Yom River. Oh my gosh, such a great day. Then in the afternoon, I went to the market to find a cake to give to the johk lady, at her request (I told her the day before that it was my birthday, and she asked if I would eat cake. I told her no that I don’t like cake, so she told me to bring her my cake and she will eat it. So I bought her and her workers little cakes). I found a lady boy selling cakes, and he/she said hello to me in English, looked at me curiously and said to me in Thai, you're half Thai, aren't you? NO ONE ever guesses that I am half Thai. Ever. I actually got mistaken for Italian at the bar last week in Bangkok watching the Wales v. Italy rugby match. Sorry, but I would never root for Italy. Wales won by the way. Anyway I was so excited that the lady boy recognized me as half Thai. And so I have a new English student- he/she wants me to come visit him/her regularly so he/she can practice English.

That evening, Kru Pet offered to bring us to his home in Sukhothai and have his parents make us dinner. So he picked us up that evening and we headed to Sukhothai. It was too bad we missed sunset, because his 800 rai (about 400 acres) of rice fields would be so beautiful in the sunset. It was already dark when we got to his parents’ farm, but that didn’t stop us from going out to see his brothers harvest the rice. After driving down a windy road in the pitch dark for about 15 minutes, I think never leaving his parents’ property, we finally approached signs of civilization. There was a monster tractor pacing back and forth, ingesting the grains of rice while tossing aside the reeds. And when I say monster tractor, I mean it really looked like a monster! Or an alien. Maybe a monster alien. It’s two distinct headlight eyes were surrounded by a rainbow assortment of lights all over (every vehicle in Thailand has an array of colorful lights…even tractors), and it had multiple limbs coming out to do various functions, and it glided over the rice field with such ease that it was really hard to believe there was someone hiding in there driving it. So eerie- so awesome. So picture that, and then look up in the sky and see endless constellations. Amazinnnggg. Then the monster tractor came to where we were standing to unload the grains of rice into the truck. One rai of rice paddie supplies roughly 80 kilos of rice. Wow.

So after that little slice of heaven, we drove back towards his eldest brothers house, and they cooked us dinner. His house, though still under construction, is built in the old Thai traditional style- made out of wood and on stilts. You climb up to the balcony, then enter into one very large room, which kind of makes up the entire house. The room didn’t have any furniture…and it doesn’t seem like they intend on getting furniture, so dinner was served as is I think is typical in Thailand: on the floor with us sitting around it in a circle. They made us a wonderful local feast: pak bueng (morning glory) from their backyard, laab gop (Thai style salad with frog) I think also from their backyard, an omelet, and pork and cabbage soup. So yummy! We spent most of dinner talking about farming, and they were so excited to hear about my home in America- about my dad’s tractors, my mom’s organic garden, what we use as fertilizers, etc. Who would have thought it would be these moments- talking about fertilizers and tractors over my birthday dinner, that I would miss home the most.

The rest of my time since school has ended has been much less exciting. For Fulbright, I have to intern for the month of March. I was very lucky to find an internship with an American Fulbright research grantee that came here to study solar cell lifecycles in Thailand. So this month we are working on writing a paper together on the energy policies of Thailand, and where solar fits into the energy mix. It’s been really easy so far, I can work on the internship from anywhere really, which has allowed me to spend a lot of time in Sawankhalok. The guy I have been working for, Noah, is really brainy, and I think he’s never had someone work for him that gets as excited as I do. Everything he asks me to do is like, the coolest thing in the world. And I feel like I’ve already learned so much about Thailand’s energy policies, though I have barely done anything. The one (huge) annoying thing about this internship is that I have to take frequent trips to Bangkok.

Now, you know you’ve been to Bangkok too many times when: 1. Sunrise traffic jams are beautiful. 2. I routinely give myself three hours to run a small errand, because that is probably how long it will take. 3. It’s no surprise to see your bus driver fall asleep while waiting in traffic. By the way, between him and the young kid driving the bus with his head phones in that neglected all forms of traffic laws, I totally prefer the old man that falls asleep at the wheel.

Can you tell I’m starting to feel a little fed up with BKK? During my last trip to Bangkok, I probably spent at least half of my time in a vehicle trying to go somewhere. Actually, my last day there, I unintentionally went to every edge of Bangkok on several errands. By the time I boarded the night bus back to Sawankhalok, I was so bored that I decided to tally how many forms of public transportation I had taken that day. And now I will bore you with the details. I made 12 transfers that day, taking 5 different types of public transportation, NONE of them being a taxi (public bus, free van, motorcycle taxi, sky train, and tour bus to Sawankhalok). And the entire day, I only spent 217 bhat on transit. Not bad, eh? This included starting from the most eastern part of Bangkok, to the Northern tip where the regional bus station is, and then accidentally getting on a van to Bangkhuntian while trying to meet up with Noah in Bangmot on the western side of Bangkok. I didn’t know this Bangkhutian campus existed until I got there. The van driver entered the campus via a road that was basically built on top of lakes, which should have been my first sign that I wasn’t in Bangkok anymore. I got to the campus, called Noah and spent 30 minutes on the phone with him trying to find him looking for me. When I finally figured out that Bangkhutian does not mean the same thing as Bangmot, I panicked. Almost in tears, I exclaimed, “Noah…where am I?!” He casually responded, “Okay, so if you look at a map of Bangkok, Bangkhutian is below that…you’re basically at the Gulf of Thailand.” Oh great. At least the hour-long bus ride was free, and I was able to take another free van back to Bangkok to meet Noah. What a mess of a day.

Sawankhalok is such a treat coming back from Bangkok. We just started our Mamuang Mapraang Festival, which from what I have heard are all over Sukhothai. The festival celebrates the mamuang (mango) and maprang season- and the police station gets packed with vendors from all over Thailand, selling everything you can imagine (yes, pet rabbits, squirrels and parrots included) except mango and maprang. It’s kind of the ongoing joke- every one goes to the mamuang maprang festival…but there is no mamuang or maprang! But my fridge is already overflowing with maprang, after Kaffa’s father gave me a kilo from their house, and I went maprang picking at another one of my student’s houses in Sawankhalok. His father has 20 maprang trees, and it is like walking into paradise. He doesn’t use any chemicals, so you can just pick a maprang off a tree and eat it right there. Ah, why can’t it be hotter in America so we can have maprang trees?!
After going to meditation one day with Kaffa and her boyfriend’s mom, we went to the festival together with nongFang. I guess everyone else was scared of heights, so I got to take nongFang on the Ferris Wheel =) But after the Ferris Wheel, she wanted to go on the slide and carousel. Her dad said no, and she was in tears for the rest of the night. Poor nongFang.

The next night, Tara and Be and I went to check out the rest of the festival- and we had a feast! Pork satay, oyster omelet, Chiang Mai sausage with sticky rice, that dish with the crispy pork ball that is mashed into a Thai style salad, some weird fish soup, and other unnamable goodies. Soo much good food that we never get in Sawankhalok, with an equally exciting array of snacks to take home.

This week, all of the bad students at Sawananan school had to go to disciplinary camp. I had never heard about this, except once when P’Sonya casually mentioned it. She didn’t tell us that all the bad students at Sawananan get sent to a three day boot camp in Phitsanulok where they have to roll around in the dirt and eat food with their dirty hands while getting screamed at by a drill sergeant. Kru Bon told us about it one night when we were all hanging out. Kru Bon took all of us (Tara, Be, me, Kru Pet and Kru Soot) to the Sawankhalok dam to take pictures. I had been there once before with Kaiau, but he wanted to go take sunset pictures (Kru Bon is an art teacher at Sawananan). So we piled in the back of Kru Pet’s truck, and headed to the dam, stopping for beers along the way. It felt so high school, hanging out at the dam, drinking beers from a pick up truck. But instead I was with Thai high school teachers. Weird. Kru Bon told us all about this camp he has to take the kids to the next day, and asked if we wanted to come check it out. I had to work on internship stuff, but Tara and Be decided to go. They came back with horror stories about the kids passing out, having to run into the forest at command, and being beat with sticks.

The next day, Be had to get his visa renewed in Phitsanulok. He can’t drive because his arm is still sore from the accident, so he asked if I could drive him. Kru Pet lent him his truck, and I jumped on the opportunity of driving a stick shift Toyota pick up truck in Thailand. We took the back roads to Phitsanulok, passing miles of rice paddies, some still immersed in water, others just being harvested. It was so funny driving Tara and Be around. They both look Thai, so we got a lot of great stares when someone would see two Thai people being driven by a farang girl.

After Be got his visa stuff done, we had to drop off some bags that got left behind at the disciplinary camp yesterday, so we headed to the military base. We were a little worried coming in, practicing my speech in Thai that I was a teacher from Sawananan and I needed to drop off bags for the students. We pulled in to the first security gate, and the soldier didn’t even blink at the farang driver, he just nonchalantly opened the gate, saluting us as we drove through. We burst out laughing- really?! That is how tight the security is?? We got to the second gate, same thing. Are they even curious about a farang is coming into their military base? They’re probably too scared to speak English. We got to the camp to see the students lounging around, buying snacks, grinning widely. Tara was like, “What?! This is so different than yesterday. This is no fun” They drilled the kids a little bit while we were there, but the big afternoon event was ziplining into the river!!! I think the second day of the camp was less discipline, more adventure camp.
So Tara and Be and I climbed to the top of the three story tower where kids were ziplining from. It looked soooo fun, I was so jealous. The best were the lady boys- the drill sergeant was pushing the students off the edge, and when it came to the lady boys, they would squeal all the way down. I wasn’t gonna jump, but the drill sergeant saw me trying to leave, pulled me back and took a zipline hook and life jacket from a student in line. He insisted the farang jump with him, and so we cut in front of all the students in line and got set up to jump. For how much the lady boys squealed, it wasn’t really that scary. Half way down the line, the drill sergeant let go and leaned back, holding on with just his legs. I tried the same, but then fell off once we hit the water. Haha, He made fun of me for that.
The water was warm from the sun shining on it all day, but still felt refreshing after this heat wave. Tara and Be jumped together after me, so the three of us were soaked for our sunset drive back to Sawankhalok through the rice paddies.

A whirlwind of a semester comes to an end, with the beginning of (another) new family

The end of the semester has been a nightmare combined with a constant party. Last week was the last week of classes, which was conveniently combined with M3’s standardized testing, M6’s graduation, then M3’s graduation, and a concert on campus every day for almost a week, or just any day there wasn’t some sort of testing. I swear, between the testing, and the random activities, how do the students learn anything to be tested on? Unfortunately, I couldn’t partake in any of the activities, because I was stuck in the office grading…and grading…and grading. I did attend M6’s graduation, which was adorable. Every single one of the 500 students had an enormous bouquet of flowers, was covered in pins made by their classmates, and had presents galore.



Kaffa <3

During the last days of the semester, in between being frustrated with my students that don’t do their work, I have had some genuine moments. Boss, the leader of the whining boys in my Monday class, but also my favorite student in that class by far, didn’t know what to say when he knew it was the last time he was going to see me for the summer. He waved and said, Bye bye techer! I said “bye Boss. Have a good summer.” I could see the panic in his face when he didn’t know what to say back, so he just blurted “I love you”. Oh Boss. I love you too.

This isn't Boss- but this is another one of my favorites. His name is Change, from M3/4- one of my 9th graders. Biggest clown ever.

Man and Sea had a great follow up dance performance at M6’s graduation. Valentine’s Day ended up being anticlimactic, and a bit of a disappointment (after all that work!) so I convinced P’Sonya to let them perform again. Though exhausted with grading, I was so happy to continue to work with them up to the end of the semester, and their second performance was even better than Valentine’s Day. Man and Sea’s class has turned out to be really great and so much fun. Even though I made their final too difficult for them, I spent hours chatting on facebook with them the night before it was due. We joked about the grade I was going to give them if they use google translate on their essay. Sitting at home by myself in front of my computer at 9 at night, I have never laughed so hard. Now the next question: why are these students on facebook for hours when they have finals the next day!?

One of the best things that had happened at the end of this semester has been starting a rugby team. I didn’t think I was going to get around to it because I was already involved in so many sports. Finally one day, I asked P’Sonya to make an announcement that we would play on Thursday’s free period, and 40 students showed up! Thank goodness Steven and Be decided to join too. What was I going to do with 40 students that couldn’t speak English and wanted to tackle each other?? With my best Thai and their best English, there was no way I would be able to teach rugby (though it would have been a fun experiment!) But with Be and Steven’s help, it was the most fun I think I have had at Sawananan. We split into youngsters and oldsters. The younger students (some girls even!) had a blast, but were alllll over the place. The older kids caught on quick (surprising, because most of them were from my Monday class (Boss’s class), and are never quick when it comes to learning English), and were begging me to teach them how to tackle within half an hour. These boys have learned that I don’t put my foot down often, but I told them flat out no. There was no way I was going to teach those troublemakers how to tackle. Unfortunately, every week since then has been occupied by testing, parties or preparations for parties, so we couldn’t have a follow up rugby session. But Steven’s M2 students run to the office every day after school and ask Steven or me to play. So we have a group of 6 to 8 boys practicing almost every afternoon. So exciting!

Other than my new rugby team, I was having some major success with takraw. One day, Kru Pet, the takraw coach told me during the morning announcements that he wanted me and Be to be on his takraw team, and that we were going to play in a tournament. His limited English didn’t tell me where and when the tournament was going to be, so I just agreed and crossed my fingers that he wasn’t expecting us to go to Sukhothai that day for the tournament. It turned out that the tournament was just a school wide competition, and students can create a team, and Kru Pet made one teachers team: KBBY for Korin, Be, Bon and Yodpet. When I asked when the competition would be, Kru Pet’s response was: whenever we felt like playing, because he was making up the schedule as we go. So when we weren’t ready to play on Wednesday because we spent the afternoon playing Petanque instead of practicing takraw, he moved the tournament to Thursday.

And who would have thought that playing in this tournament would have made a huge (positive) impact on my teaching? Well, not necessarily on my teaching, but on my relationship with my students. Even though I had to change into my takraw uniform during lunch, play for two hours, then change back into my skirt for teaching, it was so great to spend those two hours out by the court. It was embarrassing to walk around in shorts on campus during school hours, but in between games, I got to hang out with some of my worst students…the ones that skip (my) class to play takraw. On Thursdays and Fridays I only teach in the morning, so after I spent lunch playing takraw, I hung out at the takraw court and helped Kru Pet teach his classes. I make it sound like it was intentional. But it turns out he was using our tournament as an opportunity to teach his students about takraw. Kru Pet actually teaches the same students I do, so when they all showed up to his class, they thought it was great to have their girl farang teacher as the takraw demonstrator. This is when I fell in love with M3/6, my worst section of 9th graders. I jokingly told Kru Pet to teach his class in English, and was surprised when he went for it and started with “Today….today….today we learn Sepak Takraw”. There was an immediate chorus of “maaiiiiii!!” “pasa thai!!” “mai ao pasa angrit” and told him they weren’t going to take his test if he spoke in English. Hahah they’re so bad.

Weekends had been even less relaxing than my weeks at school. Sarah came down from Lampang one weekend, and I got to show her my amazing town. We spent the day at Sukhothai historical parks, rented bikes, and took our time through the park taking pictures and eating a lot of food…how life should be. I love Sukhothai Historical Park more every time I go there.



The weekend I decided to stay home and “relax” ended up being not so relaxing….Kaffa, an M6 student that has become my best friend, called me on Friday night to ask her to accompany her to Uttaradit, the neighboring province, for an interview. I had no plans for the day, so I said sure. She was so excited, and said Okay! We’ll pick you up at 6! Kaffa doesn’t speak English that well, so I was hoping that she didn’t actually mean 6 in the morning..until I got a call from her at 5:30 in the morning, her sweet energetic voice saying, okay Koriiiiin we are coming to you now!

So I spent the day in Uttaradit with Kaffa and her family. Her parents are really quiet (which is funny, because Kaffa is so talkative!!) and her little sister is a riot. Her name is Fang (we call her nong Fang, nong meaning little sister). She is four years old and is all over me all the time. While Kaffa went in for her interview, I entertained her sister…or actually she entertained me by singing to me “one little, two little, three little monkeys….” and taught her some words in English, while she unknowingly taught me words in Thai. Yessss, I have finally expanded my Thai vocabulary to that of a 4 year old. After Kaffa’s interview, we went to see the Queen Sirikit Dam (which is kind of funny, because when I first started hanging out with Kaffa it was on the M6 field trip to the King Bhumiphol Dam in Tak…why dams?), and we had lunch looking over the dam. It would have been a beautiful view if it wasn’t covered in smoke from burning palm sugar fields. I spent about a quarter of the time sitting down with the family, most of which was spent spoon feeding nong Fang, then the rest of the time chasing nong Fang around. She tries to race me to everything, and one step away from her destination she always trips and falls as she yells out "chanat!" (winner!), then her eyes fill up with tears, but won't admit she hurt herself. She hardly let go of my hand all day, and showed me around a gorgeous temple in Uttaradit. She even showed me how to pray! So cute.

Then the rest of the weekend was a literal disaster. I got back to Sawankhalok that afternoon, and started tackling my monster of papers to grade. I got a call from Steven later, telling me that Be and Tara got in a motorcycle accident…he didn’t know how bad it was, but he and Oom didn’t have time to come pick me up and bring me to the hospital with them. So I called Kru Pet, almost in tears, and spent 15 minutes getting the words: accident, hospital, Sri Samrong (the town they were in, about 20 minutes from ‘khalok) through in a mixture of Thai and English. As soon as he figured it out, he was in his truck ready to take me to see them.

Tara and Be were okay. They hit a truck that went to turn and didn’t see them coming on the motorcycle. The impact wasn’t bad. Their faces got scraped up, and Tara fractured a few fingers. And they were just both in a lot of pain. I felt more bad for them having a mountain of Thai people there, telling them what they should do, when all they wanted was rest. We didn’t stay long. In the morning, I called Steven to see when he was going to the hospital, but he was already there. P’Sonya was already there. And Kru Pet had already left. After several desperate phone calls, there was no one to take me to the hospital which was super frustrating. So I spent the day alone in the office, unhappily going through my mound of grading. I got through half ish, then got impatient and hopped on a bus to the hospital. I immediately was relieved to see Tara and Be, no visitors, and got to really talk to them about how they were doing. I stayed the night with them in the hospital, got some grading done, and slept on an empty patient’s cot. They were in a large room with many patients, no air conditioning, and lots of bugs. So sleep didn’t quite come easily, but luckily Tara and Be got morphine after dinner so were out for the night. I took the bus back to ‘khalok in the morning before school, which was actually really funny. So I am thinking we're catching a local bus that runs within the province. But no. There is ONE BUS that takes all the students from this town to Sawankhalok, and it is a tour bus that runs from Bangkok (7 hours south) to Chiang Rai (6 hours north)!!! And for the twenty minute ride from Sri Samrong to Sawankhalok eery morning, it gets packed to brim, like Tokyo subway style, with students. It's so strange there is no other bus that takes these students to school. And they ride that bus every day.

So Tara and Be’s accident has been the downside of my time here in Thailand. And you know how bad things always happen in threes? Well I think that happened. The following week, Kru Pet was going to visit Tara and Be, and his brakes on his motorcycle froze up and he flipped over his bike. He only scratched up his hands, and ruined his bike, but he was fine. That was strike two. Then the next weekend, I came to Bangkok early in the morning. I was taking a motorcycle taxi from the bus station to the sky train (DON’T tell my uncle I took a motorcycle taxi!!!). As I reluctantly got on the motorcycle, images of Tara and Be kept flashing through my head as my driver weaved in and out of traffic. Across the intersection, I heard brakes screech, then heard and saw the impact, as a taxi collided with a motorcycle. And the motorcyclist went flying. I could hear him screaming. It was terrible. My driver pulled over, and I took out my phone to call the police. He watched for a minute, then said “by tdi – means “go good”, which I guess means it’s okay to just leave. Terrified, I got back on the bike, as the driver tried to convince me he can take me all the way to my end destination rather than just the closest BTS station….really?! after seeing that accident? I should have taken it as a warning to NEVER RIDE A MOTORCYCLE TAXI AGAIN. But I didn’t learn, and took one this morning, after a motor taxi driver insisted that a motorcycle is more “sabai” than a taxi taxi. Bullshit. But it is 200 bhat cheaper than a taxi, which I guess is worth my life at 5 in the morning.

On a more positive note… as the hot Thailand summer is approaching, so is mangoooooo season. Oh my goodness. I have eaten at least one mango everyday for the past month I think. On a daily basis, I actually probably eat about three bananas and two mangos. Is that much fruit unhealthy? It’s so delicious. And with mango season has come maprang season too. They’re a cousin of the mango, but smaller and even more delicious when they’re unripe and sour. Now they’re ripe and sweet, and not as fun as when they were sour, but still amazingly delicious. I also eat multiple maprangs after my two mangos…every day. And now the durian is starting to come out. Hahah still haven’t tried that one…but everyone is talking about it.
maprang

And as my first semester of teaching English comes to a close, of course it’s no surprise that my circle of English students is consistently expanding. By the end of the semester, I was spending at least two nights a week at a new person’s house to practice “English”. This includes: an architect in Sawankhalok, who lives between me and the night market so if I am not having dinner with him, I pass by and say hello every night; the superintendent of the region who serves dinner with a bottomless plate of vegetables he picks from his garden just outside the dining area; all of the PE teachers; and of course the woman that sells jok, my personal favorite student.

Then one night, as I was doing an English lesson with the woman that sells jok, a Thai couple that was eating jok wanted to talk to me. The guy got my attention by yelling “hey! You speak English. I’m farang. Can you teach me Thai?” He said this in English, and I loved him already. Tdi and Chompu were surprised to learn I lived alone in Sawankhalok, and wanted to take care of me so invited me to dinner at their house the following week. They picked me up at 6 with their friend Toey, and we went off gathering food and sauces from different restaurants literally from every corner of Sawankhalok, our last stop at a small shop in the middle of town for a bottle of whiskey. Between Tdi, Toey and I, we drank the whole bottle of whiskey over our five hour dinner. It was great. Toey speaks English fairly well because he studied in New Zealand, though Toey prefers to speak to me in Thai unless I really don’t understand. Then he’ll tell me it in English and he is a total riot. Tdi and Chompu are the sweetest couple ever (except that the three of them keep insisting I come play golf with them…I really don’t want to play golf), and by the end of the night, Tdi told me several times that he thinks of me as a daughter. Wow, didn’t take long at all! And Toey has quickly taken on the position of my protective older brother. We had dinner again later that week with Tara and Be too, and the normal hilarity ensued. Toey and Tdi are an unstoppable comedic act, even though they differ in age by about 20 years. Sawankhalok is really filled with the most amazing people <3

Pen pals

I had my genius 9th graders write letters to "pen pals" that I will send to my cousin's students in America. This one was my favorite =) Hope you can read it.

Rak maak: Lots of love!!

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the last few weeks have been filled with lots and lots of love.

Starting with the Takraw coach confessing his love for me. I haven’t figured out if he was being serious or not. I think/am going to pretend he was kidding. Good thing Takraw season is over, and the coach doesn’t show up to football practice. If the boys win this football tournament, they can totally thank Be and I. We have fully taken the reigns on this one. My 9th grade boys love it too. Last week, they spent the majority of the class not doing the assignment that I asked them to do, but drawing a map of the school to show me where the other football field is to meet them for practice. I got there (late) and of course only one of my boys from that class was there. But there are plenty of my students on the team, so I can demand when they tell me when the next practice, to tell me in English.

I don’t get to spend as much time “coaching” them as I like, because Man and Sea have gotten really into this dance performance they are doing for Valentine’s Day. They have come after school every day, and work for at least an hour, and come to me every free period they have. If only they worked this hard on their English homework! It’s going to be really hard to give them B’s in my class. But Man’s confidence in my class has grown exponentially, and he doesn’t break out in sweat every time I call on him. Last practice, we went to a studio with a mirror. I was working with Sea, while Man was checking himself out in the mirror. I had been calling his name to come help Sea with a move, and he looked up distractedly, saying “sorry teacher, I’m just so handsome”. At least he said it in English.

Though Chinese New Year isn’t as big of a deal in Sukhothai as I thought it would be (we even had a full day of school!) it did mean my boyfriend who teaches in China had a week off from school, and could finally visit Thailand! He came up to Sawankhalok and got to surprise the students (a REAL farang!) Of course they were all angels for him, even the boys who have never spoken asked questions. Some classes were shy, and others asked “How long you love Korin?” “Will you marry Korin”.
(My incredibly tame 11th graders)
I had to prep my lowest level 9th graders the week before by almost directly giving them 10 questions to write down. Once they asked the only 10 questions they had, they had to combine forces to come up with another question in English. After lots of yelling across the room to each other in Thai, they came up with “What do you think about communism?” They can’t even ask what your favorite sport is, but they can ask about communism. I think they are all just faking- I know deep down they can really speak English.


(My out-of-control 9th graders)

We sat with some of my students one of the days for lunch in the canteen. I actually never eat in the canteen, but Dave wasn’t going to meet these girls from my Wednesday class, and so they asked if we would eat with them cause they wanted to talk to him. I was overwhelmed with love for these girls- they were so cute and happy to talk to him. I had started a diary exchange with this class (where they write a diary entry, and hand it in, I read and it and write a message back, then they respond, etc.) and after that day, this is what some of them wrote in their diaries:

“Today it very happy I was sitting at lunch and eat with the teacher
Korin and Boyfriend. Very excited because I do not think thai people
eat pretty and cool person. This meal feel very tasty. Enough to tell
mother that I had lunch with the teacher I’m very happy. I will
remember this day for life, A happy day. I love Korin Rue very very….
–Oil

"at monday; It was a very good day for me same :) :) It is very happy.
I eat lunch food full quick because I full heart. feel warm and
acquainted with you much. the first time in life for me.
I miss to you and your boyfriend. because you boyfriend. he must back
Chinese city :( for make work. I pray give you boyfriend. travel
convenient and not meet danger."
-Pop

My heart almost burst with love for these girls, even though I am pretty sure they were using google translate. It was still so cute. So much love!!

After Dave’s two day tour of my school and town, I had the rest of week off from teaching because all the junior high students were going camping, so I took Dave to see the north. We spent (a lot of time on a bus and) one night in Chiang Rai, mostly because I wanted to see the White Temple, a masterpiece in the making. It was probably a poor choice for Dave’s first temple, as this is the most un-Thai un-Buddhist temple ever. The entire temple is obnoxiously bright white, with an entrance over a moat of reaching hands, supposedly symbolizing desire, but feels more like they’re reaching up from hell. Then you walk into the temple, which is still only half way painted. The main wall is covered with modern scenes that represent rebirth. The collection of images is so odd: I spotted Spiderman, planes crashing into the twin towers, Avatar, and Neo from the Matrix.

So that was probably a waste of time (though I thoroughly enjoyed it) and becoming more and more Thai every day, I continually debated and asked for Dave’s opinion on how to commence our journey. I probably reassessed the next steps every couple of hours. Poor Dave. We decided to go for Chiang Mai, which ended up being the best decision I had made the whole trip. He loved Chiang Mai (who doesn’t really, Chiang Mai really is the bomb) and I have been there just enough times to be able to get around really easily. Though we only had 24 hours until we were going to fly to Bangkok, we certainly made the most of it: Dave got an abbreviated tour of all the best temples in the city, an accidental visit to the three brothers monument (which I made up the history to, but shh don't tell Dave), a taste of Kao Soi (my favorite noodle dish that is supposedly the most delicious in Chiang Mai, where it originated…though I still think it is more delicious in my town), a view of the city from the riverside bar, a visit to Pong and Charin’s restaurant, AND a visit to my favorite sister temples: Wat Doi Suthep and Wat Suan Dok. Whew. Oh and we went shopping.

So I think it’s safe to say Dave left happy, and got to see so much of Thailand in less than one week. When I dropped off Dave in Bangkok for his flight to China, it was conveniently the same day as a rugby touch tournament in Bangkok that the team I play with had organized. I got to play a fullllll day of rugby (after having not played in months) and though I was very rusty in the beginning, by the 6th game I was back in the swing of things, exhausted, but played well enough to impress my teammates. They invited me to break the rules and play in a tackle tournament in a couple weeks. But considering I would be the ONLY girl among all mens teams, I think I may just come to watch.

Back to Sawankhalok, and finally a full week of teaching. Now that I haven’t seen half of my 9th graders since New Years (no joke), it’s time to start thinking about finals. So what do I test my students on if I haven’t had class with them since midterms? It didn’t help that P’Sonya asked me to attend a conference on Wednesday about teaching English in Thailand. I told her I didn’t want to miss my classes, but she said it’s okay. Just give them a worksheet (which I did, and they didn’t do, haha). So I had to miss my favorite class with my 10th graders. I got a stack of diaries back on Thursday back from my girls, saying “I not happy because I miss teacher Korin” or “I hope Korin has good holiday. I miss study English with her”. This diary project was secretly started not to improve their English, but as an ego boost. Then there are my boys, who don’t really understand the diary thing. While Grace and Pop are drawing me pictures, or even better printing out photos from their weekend and pasting them in their diaries, my boys are standing outside in the rain, “waiting for girlfriends”. I don’t know if they were waiting to find girlfriends, or if they were waiting because their girlfriends were coming. I didn’t ask, I just took that as a sign I should walk away so teacher Korin doesn’t cramp their style.

After so much travel over the past few weekends, all I really wanted this weekend was to stay home and sleep. But I did the exact opposite. For some reason I was the only teacher P’Sonya deemed available to take Tide and one of my students, Pleng, to a spelling bee, in BANGKOK. Ugh. And it really would not have been bad at all, if Tide hadn’t been at soldier camp all week. So he hadn’t slept all week, didn’t have a cell phone, and didn’t know what time he would be getting back to Sawankhalok on Friday. He finally got back at 6 in the evening, leaving us to arrive in Bangkok at 2:30 in the morning. I felt so bad for Tide. Then with four hours of sleep, they had to compete in the morning. There were 200 hundred students at the competition, most from private or special English schools. We were the only school from Sukhothai province, so that was exciting. But they only took 50 students from the first round, and we didn’t make it. I thought Tide would have made it, I have definitely seen him spell some of the words they announced. But neither of them wanted to move on to the next round, and I didn’t really want to either. We all just wanted to go get ice cream. I told Tide, if we don’t make it past the first round, we’re getting ice cream. And he said, okay...let’s go now. So we were all secretly happy (or not so secretly actually) that they didn't make it past the first round, and we headed to the nearest Swensons for chocolate ice cream.

After two solid days of being in that van getting to Bangkok and back, I had to wake up early on Sunday to go a wedding. Kai-au’s sister, who I have met on several occasions was getting married. I think the wedding would have been a lot more exciting if I wasn’t so darn tired. I had used up all my excitement cheering on Tide and Pleng in Bangkok. But of course it is always so great to see Kai-au’s family. I got to the hotel early in the morning for the offerings to the monks. Mint (Kaiau’s sister) was dressed in traditional Sukhothai fabrics, and took part in the food offering ceremonies. After the monks ate and finished their portion of the ceremony, everyone formed a line to pour water onto the hands of the bride and groom.


Then there was a lot of picture taking before they changed into western style wedding attire. Then they continued the ceremony in a mix of western traditions mixed with a talk show style presentation. It was strange. But Mint looked fantastic, and I absolutely love her husband. And Kaiau dressed in a bright purple sequence dress.




Freakin love her. Though I was exhausted, it was still an exciting event.