Making Connections

This is how Lizzie and I get around.  I'm really good at being the passenger in back

One of the things I love that has been going on since before I arrived in Thailand are connections.  First it was connections on email.  Then I arrived and put faces to names.  Now I meet new people and get to know those I've met even better. I spent this Saturday shopping with one of the vice principals who was gracious enough to volunteer to take me to the store when I mentioned the difficulties of loading stuff up on a motor scooter.  Lizzie and I have loaded up lots of stuff but its challenging as stuff gets bigger.  Since we are settling in to our house and buying stuff like dishes and supplies, we need to go to the store more.  So I spent a few hours with my boss getting stuff and having lunch.  Lunch was interesting as we ate at KFC but didn't have the usual fried chicken.  We both decided to go with chicken and rice covered with green curry.  The chicken itself was fried with a bit of spicyness to it.  The whole thing was served on a normal plate with silverware and our sodas were served in glasses.  Nothing disposable except the napkin wanna be.
Saturday I also experienced having someone else do my laundry.  Lizzie and I discovered that there is no coin laundry super close like we had thought.  There is a laundry service place.  So I took my laundry there and they told me to come back the next day at the same time.  I arrived today to have my laundry clean, folded and possibly ironed.  It costs me about $5. I might do that again.  They charge by the kilo.

I spent Saturday night having dinner and drinks with several ladies most of whom I work with and we were hosted by Su-one of our coworkers.   Its fun being able to hang out with people away from work and talk about non work stuff.  It was actually my second night with coworkers as Lizzie and I were invited to dinner by coworker couple-Laura and Mike and their family.  I'm loving the eating out life.

Today at church, we had a Canadian guest speaker-Florilee who spoke on dream and deserts.  I was able to talk more with her after church as I was invited to join my pastor's family and her for lunch.  She was very encouraging and even prayed for me at one point.  Another connection!

New Beginnings

On Monday, Lizzie and I moved into our new place.  For those who don't know, Lizzie is my coworker who is also from the states.  We met over here when our superiors decided we would be housemates at another house.  We did not end up going to the original house but it got us thinking about being housemates and then we started looking for places together instead of apart.  The house that we chose was the 2nd of 3 houses that we looked at.  It was the one we both were excited about and its close to everything.  Our landlord has been wonderful so far.  He is a former long time parent of our school and has several houses in the city and other teachers also rent from him.  Our neighbor is also our coworker.
The house is a cute little 2 story 3 bedroom home that we both have adapted to.  I hope to bring Lily here in the future as well since cats are allowed.
Both Lizzie and I are settling into our new place and our new life now.  Its easier having a more permanent home.  We both knew that our apartments were temporary and I always felt like I had one foot out the door.  In our new place, we have furniture but very few dishes and a stove we haven't figured out yet.  But since eating out is so cheap, we have both been eating out 1-2 meals a day.  Usually we buy the school lunch since it too is cheap and good as well as dinner from a nearby restaurant.  I've discovered that even the smallest hole in the wall places, know enough English for me to be able to order something. Nice thing about being from CA is that lots of people have heard of it.  Maybe not the place I came from but at least the state. 
At work, I'm finalizing my schedule tomorrow and meeting kids and parents.  I've been making a daily appearance at the morning coffee chat with the parents so they can see who I am.  Since its by grade, I have to show up each day til they get to 6th grade.  Each day I get better at my presentation.

Next week, I begin having students come to my room.  Mostly we will do informal assessments in the beginning.  But then jump into a routine shortly afterwards.  I look forward to the routine.

New Experiences

On Friday night, I went with my pastor and a pastor couple from Australia to Chiang Mai City Gate Church.  I know very little about the church but in the time I was there, I could tell that they were full of life and going for it in God.  Worship reminded me a lot of CA but not because of what they sang but rather how they did it.  There were times when the worship leader felt lead to speak out words of praise and pray.  They were a young appearing team and had a lot of energy.  Since it was all in thai, it was like listening to people sing worship in tongues.  I could feel the heart behind it even when I didn't recognize the songs.
The sermon itself was actually presented by the Australian guests that I had arrived with.  This pastor couple are missionaries and they travel to many countries preaching the gospel.  They have a ministry of healing.  Both spoke and with energy and many stories from their travels.  Its just amazing to hear all that's going on in other parts of the world.  They have so much faith that they have no fear.  They know that God is protecting them and using them for the kingdom.  During their preaching, the pastor of the City Gate Church was translating.  I've never seen someone translate with the same energy and passion as the person preaching.  He was even doing similar gestures.
After the sermon, there was a time when people who wanted healing to come up.  Some people had big responses and passed out and other were smaller.  But I don't think anyone was disappointed.  They also made a point to let people know that sometimes healing is immediate and sometimes it happens over a period of time.  I was glad that they told the congregation this.  I wasn't sure how many of them had ever experienced healing before.  I myself chose to use the time to pray.  I'll be hearing the couple speak again at our regular congregation location on Sunday.
Today Lizzie, my new housemate and I signed the lease for our house.  Then we went shopping with another co worker for sheets and towels and garbage cans.  Ultimately we need stuff for the kitchen but since its incredibly cheap to eat out here, we're not terribly worried.  Both of us are going to be living on as little as possible til pay day next month.  We actually have to pay rent for our current place, rent for the rest of this month for our new place, and a deposit and we haven't gotten our first paycheck yet.  Thank heavens for flight reimbursements and being able to access my American account from Thailand.  After our first payday, we can finish stocking our house.  The house is furnished so we don't need to look for furniture.  Just a tv at some point.
The house itself is a 3 bedroom cute little place.  It has tile floors and a balcony upstairs.  Downstairs, there are places to sit and relax and a fountain on the porch with fish in the pond it feeds into.  In our little neighborhood, there are other ponds and at least 3 other houses. One of my other coworkers lives in one and a family in another.  Eventually we will have a housemate in the remaining house.  I also think there may be one more house that we didn't see.  The entire neighborhood is gated and there is a security guard.  But like other places we still need to be watchful because farangs(foreigners) are targets for robbery because they think we are rich.  We have been advised on how to make our house less of a target.  I will post pictures when we move in.  Moving day is Monday as we need to be out of our apartments by Tuesday morning.  We both have to work so we'll just pay rent and turn in our keys at that time.  Our vice principal was kind enough to let us borrow the school songthaew and some workers to help move our stuff.  Should be a quick move.
For now, its back to packing.

First Day of School

My apt from the outside.  My window is the bigger one.

Today was the first day of school.  For me, that means no students.  I get to spend the first two weeks observing my students and doing testing so that I can set up my schedule for the rest of the year.  I have met 3 students now, one was introduced to me by another student.  I look forward to when I can work with them and get to know them better.
This first day was not without some event though.  It was quite stormy from the very beginning.  Storms have this habit of just showing up here.  Never leave home without an umbrella and a poncho if you plan to be on a motorbike.  The thunder was so loud and sudden, it was a wonder to me that the little kids could even do class.  The power when out for a short time as well.  My room is a little dark without light and dark clouds don't help.  Thankfully it didn't last long. 
We had our first recess meeting in the elementary dept and the food was great!  I will never go hungry here.  Lunch is also a new experience.  Since its a bit cheaper to buy lunch here and the options are nice, I plan to eat school lunch or the lunch they get from take out everyday.  Its not the fast food take out that we might think of, its thai food.  The cafeteria has a new manager so the menu has changed.  It includes salads, sandwiches, thai food and breakfast.  I had a ginger/pork stir fry today with rice for a dollar.  Can't be that!

My room where I live now

Yesterday, Lizzie, my coworker and future housemate, went to look at a house owned by a parent from school.  He has several houses and several coworkers currently and previously rented from him.  The house is a nice 3 bedroom place with sort of an Italian/Thai fusion theme(that's how my coworker describes it since he's Italian).  The floors have colorful tile.  There is a lovely pond, a balcony(which is what really clinched it for me) and a nice little outside area.  One of our neighbors is a coworker and the other is a family-American I think.  Its very close to school, local shops and still quiet enough to feel like its in the country.  We will be moving next Monday.  Both Lizzie and I are looking forward to ditching our apt which does seem a lot like a dorm since it lacks a kitchen and its mostly just a bedroom.  It has been nice to have a place to stay until we found a house though.

2 Weeks In

Hanging with the elephant

Elephants working the crowd

I arrived 2 weeks ago yesterday.  Hard to believe.  All of my orientation and staff development finished yesterday.  One day we ended with a thai massage-just the new teachers who wanted it got it free.  Yesterday we ended with a welcome back BBQ.  The elephant Maesa Elephant Village that we visited this week was really cool.  No elephant ride this time because the rain showed up in buckets.  But the show was neat.  The elephants have a lot of character.  They also can play soccer, throw darts and paint.

Nail Dance

The end of orientation concluded with a traditional Khantoke dinner.  We ate dinner on the floor and it was very good.  It consisted of sticky rice in a small wooden container.  We each had our own.  We rolled the rice into a ball and dipped it in a couple of different sauces.  They were only mildly spicy.  We also ate sweet potato fries, fried pork skin, fried chicken, veggies, and pork curry.  This was all served on these round little tables that sat on the floor.  There were 4 of us sharing the food on each table.  For dessert there was coffee/tea and a rice like cookie. 
We were entertained with traditional music and dancing.  I love watching and experiencing all of this.

Khantoke dinner on the floor with the group

There is just this huge sense of family that has been both talked about and demonstrated in the CMIS school community.  Its going to be a great year.  The students will be returning monday.  I met one yesterday during new student orientation.  I met another one a few days earlier.  I have been told that I have 2 weeks to get my schedule up and running.  This is good actually because it means that I can spend time familiarizing myself with my students through observation and reading their files.

Most of my students have a learning support plan.  This means that they are having difficulties in the classroom but do not have an identified learning disability.  I've been told that I only have 2 students with IEPs.  Very Nice!  I have lots of freedom to use different strategies to help the students which is also very nice.  My dept has been very helpful.

 So very soon life here will kind of become a routine.  It will be nice not being in college class fulltime for once.  It makes it easier to be social.  Like running around town and doing lunch with Lizzie and Yara. 
I am planning on doing independent study though through my grad school in CA.  I decided to maintain my status as a Master's student a little longer.  I don't yet know how to complete the final 2 classes yet from abroad but at least I can work on my thesis plan with an international twist.

Life in the Kingdom

I've now passed my one week mark here in Chiang Mai.  I absolutely love it here and I haven't started my regular work with students.  That starts in one week.  Our last day of Thai orientation and culture is tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun as it involves a visit to the elephant place and a traditional Khantoke dinner.  This weekend has been fun too.  My coworker/future housemate and current neighbor, Lizzie and I were invited to lunch by another coworker and his family.  Its been really nice the way our coworkers both new to the area and been here forever, have really embraced us and made us feel so welcome. On friday night, most of us were at the dinner at our principal's house.  That too was a blast especially hearing the stories from where people have been and their experiences.  We are all coming from different places and some have been on the missionary field all their life due to parents moving here and others are fairly new like me.  That dinner was the beginning of a really relaxing weekend. I say relaxing because although I've been gone from home most of the weekend, for once I'm not worrying about homework or work related stuff on a weekend.  So I've felt free to be spontaneous and hang with people.

Mahidol Rd.  Doi Suthep in the background

Tha Pae Gate

Getting back to Saturday, we had lunch with our coworker's family and they took us to a shopping area on the other side of Chiang Mai.  A place we hadn't been to yet.  We were able to explore one of the malls here and walk the neighbor.  The walk turned out to be quite long as we had to go where there were sidewalks and find our way from there. Eventually we decided to return to the old city via songtaew.  This is like a taxi sort of but its two rows of seats behind a cab but enclosed except the back end where you get in.  We negotiated our fair and made our way to Tha Pae Gate.  This is on the eastern side of the old city. We wandered in the gate but shortly after wandered back out in favor of finding a place for dinner.  We found an inexpensive restaurant serving thai food.  Of course!  I actually had a hamburger with our friends for lunch so I opted for Khao Soy for dinner.  I don't know the difference between good Khao Soy or bad yet but apparently there is one.  Khao Soy is a traditional thai noodle dish with yellow noodles, a meat of choice like chicken, beef or pork.  Then you add raw onions, pickly veggie and hot sauce but to your liking.  Its quite yummy.  I had it my first day in Thailand.
Since the rain here is showing up quite a bit, we got caught in it while downtown.  So we negotiated a tuk tuk to get home.  Tuk tuk's are like open air taxis and it helps if you aren't tall as the roof is quite short even for me.  I also have discovered that Lizzie is a Glee fan.  That totally rocks!

Tuk Tuk coming down the street

Sunday-today for me, I returned to Seng Sawang church.  I had considered also going to an English international church later in the afternoon but you'll find out later why I didn't do that. 
Church currently means that I enjoy it all in Thai.  Actually, they've been translating bits and pieces for me.  They actually is multiple people.  Last week, the sermon was translated due to our guest speaker.  San, a thai woman that I met, translated bits and pieces of the non sermon parts.  This week, I was told that Amos, one of the pastor's sons would translate.  Poor guy had a lot of difficulty as its very hard to translate especially when you are only a teen.  I saw between his mom, Sariton(spelling?) and him and between those two and an occasional translation from the pulpit, I got a translation.  While I love the translation, I actually felt okay in the times when I didn't know what was going on.  The family has really been quite welcoming to me.  After church, we went to another mall where father and son were buying shoes and mom and I were just shopping.  We also enjoyed a lunch in the cafe court area.
Only an hour after they brought me home, I got to experience another part of the culture; the motorcycle or scooter as it reminds me of.  One of my coworkers, Andrew who we had lunch with only the day before, has loaned Lizzie and I his extra motorcycle for as long as we need it.  Incredibly awesome and generous!  Lizzie knows how to ride one already so it was easy for her to acclimate.  Me on the other hand has never even been a passenger.  So I rode on the back around the neighborhood for a trial run.  That was easy.  So then I drove around the parking lot.  Yes,  I drove!  But the reason I never left the parking lot however is that I have a little lack of confidence with acceleration and I like the brake.  I did find that I drove better when I went faster however so Lizzie and I were figuring out when the quite time of the neighborhood might be so I can practice on a street.  Our parking lot isn't that big.  We did go out- me on the back of Andrew's cycle and Lizzie on our cycle and went to coffee.  Unfortunately the rain made an appearance so that's it for practicing for today.  But I can't wait to get more practice.

First day of Orientation

Sawadee Kha!  สวัสดี ข่า
Today was my first day of orientation at CMIS.  I met the rest of the new staff.  Some are returning from working previous years.  Some are brand new like me.  We had a detailed tour of the campus and a detailed account of health issues here in Thailand. 

After lunch, we had our first Thai Culture/Language training as mandated by the government.  It was actually interesting and we learned a few new words and phrases.  Hopefully I'll still remember them tomorrow.  We also learned about the Wai's which are the greetings.  There is definitely a way to do it and it depends on who you are doing it to.  There is a high level of respect for people who are older, royal, monks etc.  Teachers are respected which is a breath of fresh air.  I think many of my students from last year could have benefitted from Thai culture training.  There are many things I didn't know through my research of Thailand so its helpful to learn them now.  I've also learned that the Thai people have a lot of grace even for us farangs(foreigners is pretty much what it means) when we make mistakes.  It doesn't mean you get away with stuff, it just means there's a lot less stress and argument and a lot more compromise.
Last night, my coworker introduced me to the market scene.  We went into the older city area which is full of many bargain shops, food including Subway and night life.  There is definitely an active night scene in the busier parts of town.  Also people here eat all day and night so many places are open late.  Their metabolisms must be amazing.

The Tail End of Summer

My summer officially ends on Thursday with the start of orientation.  I'm looking forward to meeting my new coworkers and starting my Thai lessons.  Apparently its mandatory by the Thai government that foreign teachers receive at least 20 hrs of language lessons.  Works for me.
Today I decided to attempt laundry.  I had planned to try tomorrow but since the laundry area which is also the kitchen area and technically outside by most definitions, was wet.  Not damp but there were puddles of water on the ground which is strange since the place appears to be pretty well covered.  Anyhow, electricity and water have a tendency not to mix so I waited til today.  I decided to use the small washing machine since its cheaper and I didn't have a lot but changed my mind.  When I looked in the small washer, it was half full of water that looked like it had been sitting for a few days.  Maybe the rain mysteriously got in like the floor or maybe the machine never emptied from the last load.  I decided that hand washing in a bucket looked like a great idea.  It took a few hours to move several items of clothing from the washing stage to the hang dry stage, but most of my clothes ended up getting washed in the end.  Most are still drying tonight but that's what happens when I only have indoor drying capacities.  I have a portable drying line or whatever its called which helps a bit.

Ping River on my walk

After the laundry experience, I decided to try walking to the shopping center that I went to a few days ago.  I think it took me at least a half hour or more and I accidently went through the garden neighborhood.  The good news about that though was that there was less traffic.  I'm still learning to cross the street without getting hit.  So far its working for me.  Sounds easy coming from the US but since motorcycles come from behind cars on both sides, its easy not to see them coming.  So I'm learning that crossing the street in any place where there's an opening works and look everywhere except the sidewalk when crossing the street.
That's a really long way to say that I made it to the shopping center. I decided to be adventurous and eat in the cafe court.  People here are very patient thank heavens.  The cook enlisted another customer to read the menu item that I was pointing to and then pointed to where I was to go to get a cash card for paying.  I have noticed that just because there is an English translation with a Thai word doesn't mean people understand the English word.  But people here are patient and smile a lot.  So I do the same.  Even on the road, I don't hear a lot of honking.  People just go with the flow.  I could get used to this.