Language Barriers

I gave out me e-mail address to my classes so they can stay in touch with me if they want to after I leave. I have already received two e-mails from the same student.

Email #1: Written in Thai, this is the Google translation

555 + Teacher Im Thinnakorn Sriwilard M.2 / 3 5555 +. Miss Youuuu ~ ~ ~ 55 +. My Email-Address: kurosakiijiko@hotmail.com.

l You will be returned to your home เเ still want happiness in mind, we always other other other other other other. Teacher Ilan

E-mail #2:

I hope to see you in MSN live

MSNNNNNNN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 ... 2 ... 3 !!!!!GO
YAYAYAYA!!!!!
555+
(Crazy)
hmmmm..... MY nickname is Aof

Weirdos.

Status Report IV

Flight to Australia: BOOKED

I'll be in the land down under from May 7th- May 30th. The second of three parts on my round the world adventure.

The Beginning of the End

This is my last week of teaching here in the Kingdom of Thailand, and today I finished teaching my first of nine classes. The first to go was one of my M.1 classes (grade 7 in the U.S.), and while I suspected it would be hard to say goodbye to a couple of the students in the class who I really like, I didn't think that it would actually be hard to say goodbye to the entire class. They might have driven me nuts, and I might have wanted to throw them out a window a time or two, but they were all part of my experience here and it made me realize that I might have helped these little kids out more than I thought. Many of them came up to me telling me that they'd miss me, and that they wish I could come back and teach again. One student in particular, named Tew, wrote me a really nice letter in my notebook:

Hello Teacher,

I will miss u. You was a great teacher. I hope you will come back to this class again. Have a good time. I will be a great teacher in the future.

Good Luck,

Tew

I mean, how can you read that and not feel good? A smile full of genuine happiness came over my face when I read that. The rest of the class was spent taking funny pictures, talking, and it just wouldn't be a day in the classroom without the occasional roughhousing.

This just about sums it all up

Usually at the end of every class, the students all stand up and say "Thank you teacher, goodbye. See you next time." But as I said goodbye to the class for the last time, they all stood up and said, "Thank you teacher, goodbye." It was then that it really hit me. This is the end of an experience that helped me change and helped me grow and I won't ever forget it.

America (by Simon and Garfunkel)

This weekend, I could have sworn I made an early return to my home country. Had it not been for the insanely hot and humid weather, I would have thought I was back home in Maryland. It all began Friday night when Jon and I watched a movie, drank some beers, and made a drunk run to 7-11. It reminded me of those wonderful late nights after the bars in College Park, where we'd either go to Shanghai, Ratsies, or of course, 7-11 to get taquitos. Oh, college memories.

Saturday I went back up to Suphan Buri to meet my friends again. We went to a nearby mall and went to a cosmic bowling alley. We played a game, and I came in second bowling a gentleman's 82. Then, hungry from hurling heavy balls down a lane, we went the The Pizza Company, an Italian food restaurant chain in Thailand. We gorged on pizza, breadsticks, onion rings, pasta, and a pitcher of pepsi. What a feast! After, the girls (Deb and Lexa) went back to their apartment, but Ian, Joe, and I all stayed to play a couple more games of bowling. We ended the night all back at their apartment, chatting it up, looking at and exchanging pictures, and reminiscing about the good times we've had together in the past few short months. Hard to believe it's almost all over.

Sunday morning, we said our goodbyes to Deb and Joe, but Ian, Lexa and I had a big day planned. A Japanese teacher that works at their school picked us up, and took us to an aquarium where we saw colorful, tropical fish, and lots of crocodiles. But the real fun part was when we went to the zoo next to it and got to play with little lion and tiger cubs, and some orangoutangs too! They were so playful and active, which sometimes was a little scary, but at the same time, totally exhilarating. We fed them milk from a bottle, and they slurped away like nobody's business. One of the tigers even got a little too rough, which resulted in my arm and the side of my stomach in it's mouth! Tiger slobber is a lot like any other kind of slobber. You learn something new everyday. Next, we played with some of the orangoutangs that were dressed in funny people clothes. Monkeys in clothes=Hilarious.

The attack

So, to sum it all up. My weekend consisted of watching a movie, getting drunk, eating drunk food, bowling, eating pizza, hanging out with friends, going to the aquarium, and going to the zoo. Tell me that's not the most American thing you could ever do.

I want one

The Beast

I am now convinced that the baby pigeon that lives on my balcony is a complete freak of nature. It has grown to almost being a full sized pigeon in about 2 weeks. Every time I walk out onto my balcony, it looks like it's getting into attack mode and is about to inflict some harm upon me.

Look at it, it's got the crazy eyes!

CJ and Christina in Love

Over the course of the past few weeks I have gotten multiple text messages from someone named Christina. She seems to be searching for a man named CJ, and also seems to have the wrong number. I have not written back to her yet, as international texting ain't cheap. So she continues to text me, desperate to hear back from this mysterious CJ. She has also called me twice, and even though she hears on my voicemail that my name is Ilan and clearly not this CJ character, she continues to text me.

Here is what she has sent me so far:

1) hey cj its robs daughter christina

2) hey

3) is this cj?

4) hey this is christina robs daughter

5) hey its christy i tried calling u but i guess ur busy or sleeping or wutever but if ya wanna call or txt me back its chill :-)

6) hey

7) hey

8) im sorry if u have gotten so many txts frm me my dad sed u never got em so my bad if im blowing up ur phone

I wonder when I'll get the next one. Part of me wants to go along with it and pretend I am CJ, but A) It would be expensive and B) It might just be a little too mean. I also wonder how old these people are. I mean, honestly, who spells whatever like "wutever" and said like "sed" unless they failed English class (maybe I could teach her) or they are a teenage girl. I guess this will just be one of lifes many great mysteries...

Adjustments

I think it's safe to say you've gotten used to a new place and a new culture when you get used to the following:

1) Your own language now sounds foreign to you.

2) You no longer know what to do with a knife.

3) You can eat anything with a spoon.

4) A constant state of confusion is the norm of your life.

5) Elephants walking down the street doesn't seem strange to you.

6) A fried egg seems boring without rice to go with it.

7) You see four cows in the back of a pickup truck and you don't think twice about it.

8) You see many strange vehicles and all you think is, "How can I get one of those?"

9) You learn that the phrases "Maybe," "Up to you," and "OK" can solve any situation.

10) You've forgotten what it feels like to be cold.

This is Thailand.

The Return

I knew I'd be back. This past weekend, I returned to my favorite place in Thailand, Sanghklaburi. But this time, I came with some friends of mine. When I heard they were planning a trip there, I hopped on the bandwagon and tagged along. It all started Friday night, when I took a bus up to Suphan Buri to meet my friends at their apartment for a night of western food, movie watching, and good company. We watched "Up in the Air," which I liked, but honestly did not understand why everyone thinks it's the best movie of the year. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and hired a van to take us to Sangkhlaburi. It was a long ride from Suphan, about 5 hours, but we kept busy by talking about this and that and everything in between.

The road to Sanghklaburi

Upon our arrival in town 5 hours later, we got right into the fun. After few quick pit stops at scenic viewpoints, a temple, and some shops, we went to our hotel. We stayed at the same place I ate all my meals at the last time I was there, and to my surprise and delight, all the staff that worked there remembered me! They all came up to me, shook my hand, told me they were glad to see me again, and it felt pretty great to feel so welcomed back to a place I love so much. We chowed down on some Burmese dishes,

dropped our bags off in our rooms and dove into the lake. We swam out to the bamboo raft and hung out there for what was probably a couple hours. One of my friends has an underwater camera so we brought that out there and took lots of pictures of us on the raft, jumping off, in the water. It was loads of fun, but by the time our fingers were shriveled into oblivion, we thought it was probably time to go back onto shore.

I fell in the water about 2 seconds after this picture was taken

The next few hours we spent walking over the Mon bridge, admiring the sunset and wandering aimlessly around the village. We met some locals, played with some kittens, and talked about how much we all love this place and wish we never had to leave. We were all tired after a long day and went to bed early. A 6 am wake up call was in order so that we could take a misty morning boat ride on the lake, something I did last time and was eager to do it again. We all piled into a long-tailed boat and sailed on the water for an hour or so, circling the underwater temple, passing farms, and waving to villagers.

B-E-A-UTIFUL

The next thing to cross off our list was a trip to Three Pagodas Pass, which if you remember was where I accidentally walked into Burma last time I was there. Lucky for me this time, there were no international conflicts and all I got from my second voyage there was a t-shirt and some great pictures. Before we knew it, it was time to return back to our respective schools, but not without a quick stop to a waterfall along the way. The falls were packed with Thai vacationers and their kids having the time of their lives swimming around in the pools. Not many other times have I seen a place with so many people in complete and utter joy. It made me happy to be there, if only for a short while.

Pure joy.

Once back at school, it was a return to normalcy that I have become a little too bored by. I know I'm in Thailand, but during the week my days are pretty boring. I'm ready to start traveling, I'm ready for Josh to get here, and I'm ready for an adventure unlike no other. Until then, I'll just have to do the best I can and try to make these final days of teaching something to remember.

Continuations (is that a word?)

My most recent nebula creation. Done using that interference acrylic ink that I love so much.

I just entered a photography contest for animal portraits, and I submitted this picture of my smelly cat.

That's just gotta win, right?!

Oh yeah, big change of plans after my Asian travels with dear Joshua. Looks like I'll be heading down under to the great continent of Australia to visit my friend and fellow traveler, Kanika. Once you got the travel bug, you just can't stop, can you?

It's almost the end of my 3rd to last week of teaching. This has been one heck of a long week. Sometimes the kids just decide they want to really screw with you and make your life miserable some weeks. This was one of those weeks. I have really enjoyed living and traveling in Thailand, but honestly, get me the hell out of this school already. Two more weeks to go... I can make it.

Funny Moments in the Life

Hello friends and followers. I don't have anything too exciting to talk about today, but I just thought I'd share with you some funny things that have happened to me this week.

Funny moment #1. The other day I went to the pool on campus to get some sun and to do some reading. I was bored, it was a Sunday afternoon, and I didn't have much else on my mind besides relaxing. At the pool, there is a tournament style high dive that I'd say is at least 25 feet high. I was swimming around in the deep end when I noticed some young Thai children laughing at me. I looked at them and said "What?!" They continued to laugh at me and then pointed to the high dive. I asked them "Jump?" They all nodded their heads in excitement. I could tell they were interested in this, so I thought I'd give them a fun show, but only if they did it in return. I said, "I jump, you jump." They all make this noise (as all Thai people do) "Ooooooooooaaaaah." I said, "OK?" They said OK. I made my way up the tall ladder to the top of the dive, and it felt a whole lot higher once I was actually up there. Without thinking, I just ran, jumped off the diving board, did two flips in the air and landed awkwardly and painfully on my side in the water. Ouch. My pain was their enjoyment. They laughed and laughed and laughed, until I said "You go." After some time spent convincing them the best I could in English, one of them finally went. He "jumped" off the board, very reluctantly. And by jumped I mean he slowly walked to the end of the board, took a step, and just fell into the water. The other two kids did basically the same thing and we continued this game for a while, until I left. I'd like to think I made American's look tough though. Those kids were certainly impressed. Who care's if they were about 8 years old and I'm 23. I still won.

Funny moment #2. Yesterday I came back to my apartment after school dying of thirst. To my disappointment, I discovered we were out of water. The only thing I had to drink was a Leo Beer. I was desperate. And desperate times call for desperate measures. I cracked open the Leo, poured myself a glass and chugged that sucker down. The cold beer soothed my dry throat, but this was a bad, bad idea. I drank about half of a big bottle, which is about double the size of a 12 ounce beer in America, but since I was dehydrated, I got drunk. My body was craving water, not alcohol, so I had to pay the consequences. I hadn't eaten in hours, I was dehydrated, and I was tired, half a beer was plenty to buzz me up real good. So, it was 4:00 in the afternoon and I'm now drunk and don't know what to do with myself. I ended up taking a 3 hour drunk nap, and when I woke up, I thought it was the next morning and proceeded to get dressed for school. Eventually I figured out that I'm a complete idiot and that it was still night time. Not my best moment, but still pretty hilarious. We have since gotten water, and I learned my lesson about drinking beer when I'm tired, hungry and dehydrated.

Funny moment #3. After my drunken stupor last night, I was hungry. When I went to the market, I ordered a Thai omelet with rice. As I was waiting, I heard some Thai University students talking next to me. All of a sudden, I heard the word "Farang" in their conversation. I've told you all this before, but "Farang" is a Thai word for Westerner. I've come to think of it almost as my second name because I am referred to as Farang so often. Anyway, whenever I hear it, it grabs my attention. My head immediately spinned towards the students who just completely froze when they realized I understood them. It. Was. Hilarious. They just stood there, not sure what to do. I decided to mess with them a little and started giving them dirty looks (I might have still been a little drunk) and to pretend I was really mad. They completely panicked and one of them just ran away, then the other 2 followed her. I laughed myself silly as I continued to wait for my omelet which was oh so delicious.

And here's something that some of you might find funny as well. A picture of me, hard at work at my desk in my office. A Thai teacher popped up all of a sudden and caught me off guard and took my picture one day when I was working. I think for not being ready for the picture, it's actually pretty good! When I came to school this morning I found a copy of the picture sitting on my desk. I didn't know what to do with it, so I took a picture of it and decided to put it up here. It's not the best quality, but you all get the idea.

Teacha Ilan aka Ajaan Ilan aka Farang Ilan

Nebulae

Here are a couple new nebula creations I made this weekend. I'm working on another one now, and I'll put that one up as soon as it's done. Get on my good side, and maybe I'll name one of my nebulae after you!

Roll the Credits

Hey friends. Since I didn't go anywhere this weekend because of that whole Indian Visa debacle, I had lots of free time on my hands. In addition to making some new nebulas out of acrylic ink, and watching bad romantic comedies on HBO, I had time to make a little movie that highlights some fun moments of my time in Thailand.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to upload the dang video on to my blog. I let it upload overnight, and when I woke up this morning, the wheel of death was still spinning. But all hope is not lost... I have been able to upload it without problem onto my Facebook page. So, if you are friends with me on Facebook, go check out my profile and you can watch the video! Hope you all enjoy it!

Oh yeah! There's an update on my baby pigeon situation. One of them has hatched, but the other one has yet to arrive in this big blue world. Baby pigeons look nothing like what I thought they'd look like, and are probably one of the ugliest looking creatures I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. See for yourself...

Why is it yellow?!

I am also deathly afraid to go on my balcony now, because whenever I do, Mama Pigeon flaps her wings and goes crazy. I usually think she's going to attack me but then she just flies away, leaving me with opportunities to take pictures of her mutant baby.

Status Report III

India Visa Application Center in Bangkok: FAIL

Well, I knew it was too good to be true. I thought that the process for getting my Indian Visa was too easy and ran way too smoothly. I should have known, after all, this is Thailand and nothing is easy. I applied 3 weeks ago for a one month tourist visa for India, I've spent a lot of time and money going back and forth to Bangkok to take care of this over the past few weeks. I dropped my passport off yesterday to have the visa put in, and I was all excited to pick it up this morning. But when I picked it up, I noticed something was wrong. The visa expires before I even leave for India. See, what they didn't tell me at the application center was that the visa is valid for the amount of time you request from the day they issue your visa. So, since I asked for a one month visa, they made the validity of it February 4th 2010- March 3rd 2010... one day before I leave for India. After lots of arguing and stressing out, the man who was helping me told me that I could just pay a fee of 500 Rupee once I arrive in India, and everything would be settled. I asked him repeatedly, "Are you sure???" "I'll be able to enter India and stay there???" Yes, yes he kept telling me. I was skeptical so I did some of my own research, and discovered that not only is this not true, but I wouldn't even be able to board my flight to India without a valid visa. And if it expires while I am there, I would be detained at the airport when I try to leave the country. Thanks a lot, stupid India visa application man. I'm not happy about this at all. This means that I have to go through the entire process all over again, spend another 100 dollars, plus transportation to and from Bangkok. AND I still need to apply for and get by visa to Vietnam. Now I don't know when I will have the time to do that after this whole fiasco. I was going to go to the beach this weekend, but now I can't because I need to save money and pay the visa fee again. UGH... I'm just going to be hanging in my town this weekend, shooting the breeze, and try to work on some art. Maybe I'll make a piece entitled "Stupid Visa Application Center in Bangkok," it could be my masterpiece.

"I Like Game Computer, Because it is Funny"

I have been giving an oral speaking test this whole week and the title of this post is the most popular response amongst these little monsters. They like to play computer games because it is funny... not because it is fun. Because it is funny. I ask them, "What's so funny about it?" They just stare at me, mutter something in Thai, which I'm still trying to figure out. I think its something like "Arai Mai," but who can be sure. They usually then just start laughing and I stare at them like they are crazy. I get some weird looks in return, and sometimes we have awkward staring contests.

I got the computer game answer when I asked my 9th grade students what their favorite thing to do during the day is, and why?

Some other popular answers I'd get were:

Where do you want to travel to and, why?-- "I want go to Paris, to see tower Eifel."

and...

If you are sick, what should you do?-- " Go to doctor, drink water."

I think all the students just overheard other students talking and memorized what to say. I don't think many of them actually knew what they were saying. Whenever I tried to ask them an additional question, the awkward staring contest resulted. They had no idea. I realized how very little English these kids actually know. But then again, I also realized how much English the good students know. The one's who pay attention and who participate in class, their hard work is paying off, so good for them. At least I'm making some progress with some of these kids.

The Rat's Fly?!

I know I said I wasn't going to do it again, but the weekend brought me back to Bangkok. I wanted to go somewhere else, but that's where my friends were heading. After my solo trip last weekend, I wanted to spend some time with them, before the very fast approaching end of the semester. I can't believe there's only one month left. Where did all the time go? So much I wanted to do and see that I haven't done yet! Oh well, a month is still a long time, and I'm betting I can get a lot done if I put my mind to it.

Friday night was Jon's birthday, which is the main reason we were in Bangkok this weekend to begin with. We checked into the same hotel I stayed in for New Years, had a few beers, grabbed some of the most delicious kebabs I've ever eaten, and went out to the bars. We met up with some other friends, but they were getting dinner, so we kept on drinking. Jon and I spent some quality time talking it up, roommate to roommate at an Australian Bar and making friends with the waitress who had a crush on us. Around midnight, some of our other friends came, but I was way too tired/had too many beers at that point to stay out any later. So, I ended up just going home and falling asleep right away.

A cat I saw giving me the stare in Bangkok

Saturday we went to this giant electronic supplies outlet mall in Bangkok. I've never seen

anything like it before in my life. They had everything electronic related you could think of, and it was a sight to see. I've never lived inside of a computer before, but I have a feeling being in this place is as close as any human would ever get. Lots of lights, lots of shiny metal, lots of things moving around. I could only handle it for so long, and only stuck around long enough to buy some camera cleaning supplies. Then I took a motorbike (why do I keep doing that when they are terrifying?) to meet my friends Joe, Deb, Lexa, Gerry, and Nonie at my favorite Wat in Thailand, Wat Arun. We weren't there long, but it was good to be back there because I hadn't been since before orientation. It was a very happy return. We split up for a little while and I went with my friend Lexa back to her hotel, the Shangri-La, the best hotel in Bangkok. It was amazing. We got room service and watched "Whip It." I felt so luxurious, and the whole time I was wishing I was wearing a bathrobe and drinking fine wine. Maybe next time.

View from the Shangri-La hotel room

Dinner came around and we met up with our friends again and ate some delicious Indian food, followed by a couple beers at an Irish pub next door. It was there that I made some very stupid comments that my friends all made fun of me for the remainder of the night. The title of this post only being one of them. I won't tell you what the other one's were, they are just too embarrassing. Sorry to leave you all hanging. Lexa left a little earlier than everyone, so it was just me left with two married couples. Joe and Deb, and Gerry and Nonie- who are from Ireland. No worries though, they are some of my really good friends here and they welcomed and embraced me into their married life social circle.

My married friends- Deb, Joe, Gerry, and Nonie

The next morning, we were all invited to go have breakfast at Lexa's hotel. It was without a doubt the best breakfast I've had in Thailand. Every kind of breakfast food you could ask for was there. Also, every juice you could want was there. I saw juices at the buffet from fruits I didn't even know could be made into juice! I guess you could say I went to town on the buffet and felt like I was either going to explode or give birth to an elephant when I finished eating. Afterwards, we all went to Chatuchak Weekend Market. I'm basically an expert on that place by now. We walked around for a bit and I got a couple lightweight t-shirts, because it is starting to get unbearably hot here. I need a t-shirt that is made of the thinnest fabric known to man, and then poke holes all over it so I can breathe a little. It's truly brutal to have to work in dress clothes 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with no air-conditioning.

And that was the end of my weekend. It wasn't the most exciting, but I got to see some of my friends who I hadn't seen in a while and I had a good time. With four weekends left to go, I need to start picking my destinations wisely. And I'm serious when I say that I'm done with Bangkok for now. Except that I need to go back there tomorrow and Friday to pick up my India Visa and apply for my Vietnam Visa. But after that, I'm really done. Really.