The Point of (Know) Return

So, last blog was Sunday... That's a lot of catching up for me to do.

First, understand that we have had quite a few late nights and early mornings recently. Still, I'm sorry I couldn't get online to share the week with you.

The first half of the week was business as usual. Things started heating up as we all began to realize how quickly our stay in Trang was coming to a close. Last night's farewell dinner in Trang Town went quite nicely. We didn't go anywhere fancy, just an average Thai restaurant where we filled their back room that, I imagine, doesn't see a party full of farang very often. We ate way too much food, as usual; Sam brought us a surprise from her host family's garden, too. Have you ever heard of those little miracle berries that mess with your taste buds? Excitedly, Sam introduced this to us by offering a tiny slice of lime. If you've ever tasted lime on its own, it's not the greatest flavor in the world. After getting an idea of it in our heads, we ate the berries, spitting out the seeds. Three minutes later, she told us to try the lime again, and to our surprise it was sweet and delicious. I became unusually chipper post-berry eatin', so I imagine they might have some effect on endorphins, too.

After dinner, we took a few minutes to stretch our legs in the alley next to the restaurant (where, by the way, they were doing some major heavy-duty and noisy construction during our party). Then they announced that they had a few words to say. Dr. Hal and Yuwaddee expressed their thanks to each other and the school directors for making this experience with the Dana students possible, and we (the students) were each presented with a certificate of gratitude and achievement. (This first picture is a group photo plus Tanawan and Matmee. I didn't get any good ones of the certificate hand-off.)

The certificates, by the way, went back to the directors so that those not in attendance could make the final signature. We haven't seen them since. :P

Afterwards, we decided there was still time for some partying, so we finally did what I've been waiting for since Chat mentioned it: karaoke! Japanese-style even, so I knew how it worked. We got to this place where they have scantily-clad women open the door for you, and as you walk in there is one big room with a stage that no one used all night surrounded by smaller private rooms. We started in one of the private rooms, then moved to a bigger one with more seating. I started us off with "Let it Be" by, who else? The Beatles. We sang whatever American songs we could recognize in the book, and we enjoyed many Thai songs as well. (This second picture is Ariel singing, I'm pretty sure, "The Banana Boat Song.")

By the end of the night, several people were falling asleep, so we called it quits. The drive home was long as usual, since we all live in Yantakhao or Had Samran. It was midnight by the time Thamonwan got us home, and I couldn't bring myself to get online. I'd been up since seven and would be up at the same time for Scout Day, and I figured it was gonna be a long one.

Quick explanation: This Scout Day thing is a Thai activity that usually consists of three days of camping and militaristic practices interspersed with games for the lowest grades of high school (1, 2, and 3, or 6th, 7th, and 8th in the States). This year, however, the Thai government mandated that, because of the swine flu scare, Scout Day would be cut down to one day. We were invited by the director (principal) to come and coordinate some activities for the afternoon, so we happily obliged.

Well, when we finally got to Had Samran beach the next morning, most of the students from Had Samran school had showed up for their morning assembly. We pretty much sat and watched the whole time, not really knowing what to do. Eventually the students dispersed, and we were loaded into a pickup that took us to one of the base camp locations, where an obstacle course had been set up. (This third picture is a shot of the students stampeding toward us after the assembly.)

We had a little picnic breakfast of bread and jam and some snack foods (we had these coffee-flavored peanuts that didn't taste like coffee so they were awesome). At some point, we saw a large group of girls walking down the road we'd driven, that had to have been at least a mile and a half. Troopers! After the students applied some haphazard face paint, the teachers began to instruct them to go through the course; it involved crawling under palm leaves about a foot off the ground, shimmying across some ropes, and finally walking a barrel under another rope using their feet. Most of them handled the first two challenges pretty easily, but the third presented several problems, the least of which was tumbling off the barrel and plummeting to the ground. They all came out on the other side and headed off for lunch, though.

We were loaded back into a truck and taken farther down the road to where a few groups were preparing fires to cook their lunches. It all smelled good, but the teachers didn't sound too reassured that the students could make anything edible. After being told we'd be eating with the kids, we were taken back to the starting point to eat at the beach's restaurant. (Ha!) We found out that the cook there used to cook at Had Samran school. I'm sure the students must be missing her, because that fried rice was pretty delicious. Before lunch, however, Tanawan said ice cream and we rushed a man on a motorcycle ice cream cart. I treated us all to some coconut milk ice cream with various toppings I didn't recognize. I know there was some bread and rice, and peanuts, and some kind of sweet potato thing...Either way, it was delicious, and Dr. Hal and AJ really missed out. (Ha ha!)

After lunch, we went back to the far camp and watched a few tug-of-war games between the boys and girls. I think it was fairly evenly-matched, but the boys ended up winning through sheer organizational skills. The girls were too busy screaming, literally, to really call out "heave-ho" in the way the boys had thought of. I wish they'd been that ready to accomplish something in class!

Again, we loaded up, stopped at the halfway point to pick up some infirm students and the barrel, and then headed back to the main area to plan our activities. Everything went swimmingly. Sam and I plotted an obstacle course, directing students to help a blindfolded partner through using only English words. They responded surprisingly well, and we even finished with two minutes to spare. AJ said his activity went as planned (Simon Says in a huge circle), and I gather that the teachers with Ariel and Jennifer were a little too eager to do whatever they had been doing and so they didn't get to try their human knot game. :(

Well it wasn't long before the day was concluded, and we all headed off to prepare for dinner and other evening activities. Yuwaddee and Chalong plus family plus their peeps plus Chat and AJ plus me and Thamonwan plus a woman we met tonight had dinner at the Trang Hotel in Trang Town. I guess she was the director of another, larger school, and her English was fantastic. At the end of dinner (we only knew it was over because instead of more food they finally brought ice cream) she gave us all keychains from Chiang Mai with traditionally dressed Thai dolls on them. She assured us she would see us off tomorrow, so we will all get another chance to thank her.

We finally got back home, and now, less than five hours before I have to be up and ready to go, I am finishing what may be my last blog post from Thailand. I will reserve final comments until Chiang Mai is past, as I plan to see much more of Thai culture while I'm there. I think it worked out for me that I missed out on the touristy stuff early, because the culture immersion came first. Hopefully I'm ready for the bustle of the big city. Wish us luck!!

By the way, in case you're wondering, here is our flight schedule inside Thailand this weekend. You can check times on www.nokair.com and http://www.fly12go.com/en/home/index.php.

Saturday
DD7401 Trang to Bangkok dep. 8:55AM arr. 10:20AM (Nok)
OX8124 Bangkok to Chiang Mai dep. 2:20PM arr. 3:30PM (One-Two-Go)
Monday
DD8311 Chiang Mai to Bangkok dep. 12:40PM arr. 1:45PM (Nok)

Monday night we will have a final farewell dinner, and then the majority of us will leave right away for a 12:55AM flight home. Jennifer and I aren't leaving until later, so we get a few more hours to freshen up and get comfortable for a long ride.

Until next time, which will probably be from Omaha!

A few more excerpts. Check this post over the next few days, as I will probably update it with more student reflections.
"Unlike back home, you order food to be shared by your entire party, not just what you want for yourself. You take what you want from the table and put it on your plate, which is usually covered with a bed of steamed rice. It's almost like eating at home or a family gathering like Thanksgiving."

"I tried Thai breakfast, or a bowl of soup with rice and chicken, lightly flavored with green onion. I wish I had tried it yesterday, it was very good."

"[We went to Tanawan's resort, Tonpur,] where we will be staying for the next two nights. I gotta say, I think it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The beach is littered with sea shells and coconut trees shade the area from the bright sun."

And here's another note from Dr. Hal:

"It's time for me to check in with all of you again and provide and update from perspective.
"We have just a couple days of teaching left before we travel to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand and then return to Bangkok for our trip home. I'm encouraging our students to maintain their focus on their teaching, and finish strong. I'm sure they will.
"What I'm hearing from the Thai teachers is, 'Next time bring more students.' 'Next time stay longer.' The Thai Students have clearly enjoyed having the Dana students teaching their classes. When we leave there will be lots of 'hard to say' goodbyes. The school directors are planning an appreciation dinner and party at a restaurant in nearby Trang Town on Thursday evening.
"We've kept busy. Students have been planning lessons and teaching from two to five hours a day. Often they have the support of a Thai teacher in their classroom, but not always. It has varied from student to student some more than others, but our Dana students have been the ones that have taken the lead in teaching, and they have done it effectively and confidently.
"We've stayed busy with activities on weekends also. Our first weekend was spent boating, snorkeling and a little bit of relaxing on some nearby islands and spending the night in a tent.
"The second weekend we went caving, then kayaking 8 kilometers in a nearby river. Let me tell you, some students are more adept than others at guiding a kayak through rushing waters, but I've rarely heard more laughter.
"I'd like to share some excerpts from our students' journals again." [See above.]

So what're the goings-on? Well, we're just over halfway done with our last week of teaching. Tonight we had an impromptu visit to a beach for some fresh crab and a big delicious dinner after watching the sun set. Tomorrow night we are having a farewell/thank you dinner, as Dr. Hal has told you. Friday we've been asked to help with Had Samran School's Scout Day with some English activities. We'll see what all that entails! And as you should probably know by now, Saturday morning we leave for Bangkok and then Chiang Mai for some more touristy activities before heading home Tuesday.

Tomorrow I will have more details about this week and also about this weekend. There is no telling whether or not I will have time or even the opportunity to blog until I am back home, so I'll go ahead and promise a good one for tomorrow. Until then!

Another Great Weekend

*Preface: Some of these pictures did not get rotated, so I apologize. They will be fixed eventually, I promise.

OK, so, this has probably been one of the coolest weekends of my life. You're about to find out why.

Saturday morning, I had breakfast at home and Thamonwan and I waited in the front room for the others to come and pick us up. As I understood it, they were all coming from breakfast in town at Yantakhao. Tanawan and another teacher from school beat the van, but it wasn't long before we were all on the road to Suton. Our first destination was Pupapetch cave, and we had to climb a mountain to reach it. As we walked through the gate that marked the entrance to the path, a man took everyone's photo. For what purpose, we were not sure, but we figured he meant to sell it to us somehow.

After a lengthy hike up some very 'versatile'  stone stairs, we made it to the cave's entrance. There was already a crowd of people waiting to enter, and they seemed to have a tour guide. We took a few photos of the entrance before crawling into the small opening that took us inside the mountain itself. (You may want to turn your lights off and brighten your monitor to see some of these pictures.)

Left: Sam's host sister Matmee re-enacting an American horror film. I'm not sure which.
Right: One of the many wooden walkways built inside the cave.



The caverns we walked through were huge; the headlamps provided at the foot of the mountain could barely reach the ceiling in some places. There were a lot of bats in the high unreachable areas, and nothing we did seemed to disturb them. (We didn't try very hard, mind you.) Once again, I wish I'd had all the equipment of a film studio because this place was incredible.

Left: One of the many "diamond" rooms; the rock here sparkled like gemstones. There was a bench atop this formation where Buddhist monks come to meditate.
Right: What used to be coral when the cave was under water has since fossilized.

Left: A group photo on a naturally-occurring stage in one of the largest "rooms." There was also a small stalagmite where water dripped from the ceiling; if you catch the drop it is supposed to mean good luck.
Right: Outside, Sam and Matmee pose for a quick photo.






Please be assured that I am as disappointed as you are that I don't have more pictures of the cave. :( Meanwhile, I hope you understand, after reading of our exploits, why I chose not to bring my camera with me for the next excursion.

After spelunking, we sat down for lunch. I'm pretty sure I'd never had duck before, so I can now add it to the list of Firsts in Thailand. When we were ready to go, we hopped back in the van (and Chalong's truck) and head to a river. Once we were there, we abandoned our gear and all boarded a single pickup truck - Thai style - and drove about ten minutes until we reached a beach where a stack of kayaks awaited us. At the recommendation of our hosts, and hoping the truck would meet us back at the bottom, we left our shoes in the bed of the truck and climbed into our little boats, complete with life jackets and oars of course.

I think it's safe to say that only a few of us had ever been kayakking before, and it was clear in the way that the majority of us steered ourselves through the small but treacherous rapids. At several points we sailed straight into a tree on the bank, or ran aground smack in the middle of the river where it was really shallow. More than once Chalong and I had to step into the river to push ourselves along. We were rowing alongside Yuwaddee and Dr. Hal at one point, and Yuwaddee pointed ahead to a pair of trees growing out of the center of the river. There were decorative ropes tied around the trunks, and she called out "good luck." It was now a race to see who would receive the gods' blessing. Dr. Hal devilishly forced our kayak around the right tree, cackling as he sailed on between them. Chalong, determined, turned us around and rowed upstream so that we could try again. What a trooper! (It should be noted that Dr. Hal lost his glasses before his fiendish act, so I imagine karma made a preemptive strike.)

This wacky adventure, including boat-tipping and bumping and oars caught in hanging roots continued for, I am told, about two hours until we made it back to where the van awaited us. We had lunch while we watched for our truck, a silver pickup among dozens of others. (It must be a popular style here.) Lunch, by the way, included bread and jam; the jam came without silverware, so we improvised with a plastic straw. Thailand even does preserves better.

The truck finally brought our shoes to us, and we drove off to complete our afternoon of nature fun. Or did we? Many of us were eager to see the promised waterfall, so we stopped off at a parking lot that overlooked a path leading to something. We enjoyed some ice cream, courtesy of Tanawan, and then took the path to see what else there was to enjoy. After a very short walk, we were not disappointed.

Left: Group photo complete with unsuspecting people lifting their shirts above their bellies.
Right: The bottom steps.






Before us stood a waterfall that could have been a grand staircase to heaven. From top to bottom, individual pools made up each step of the waterfall, and just about every single one of them was occupied by children playing in the water. AJ was the first to follow suit and began scaling the steps, surprisingly not worn smooth by the rushing water. Jennifer and Ariel followed, with Chat going up there at some point. After I'd taken a few pictures of the bottom, I found my own way up to the top.

I found Ariel, Jennifer, and Chat enjoying the upper-most pool. There was a tiny alcove, in the middle of which stood a rock. Ariel told me it was special and urged me to have a seat. I obliged, but I admit that I don't feel any different for it; I imagine a day like this overwhelmed me with good vibrations, so I guess I'm not surprised a rock failed to add onto it.

Eventually it was time to go, and we all climbed back down to the path. We boarded the van and headed back to Yantakhao. The rest of the evening was carried out as normal. (For me, anyway.)

Sunday morning - today - we all got to sleep in. I was awoken at 9:30AM by Thamonwan, who had kindly arranged a plate of sticky rice w/coconut + H-shaped doughnut with a teacup of coconut milk for me...my usual breakfast, and a delicious one at that. I groggily accepted, ate in my room, and took the plate back downstairs. About an hour later, we headed for Yuwaddee and Chalong's house.

AJ reported that he was not feeling well, so he decided to stay at home today. Sam, meanwhile, was spending her Sunday with her host family visiting other sights of the surrounding province. So the rest of us took the van to see Ton Tae waterfall.

The first thing we saw was a cascade of water high up in the mountains. As I strained to see upwards and through the trees we passed, I had a mild feeling of dread for how high we were likely expected to climb. However, we were dropped off at the same altitude across which we'd driven, and we set up camp at one of several picnic tables. (In Thailand, they are made of stone and/or marble. No termites here.) Yuwaddee and Thamonwan, accompanied by First, asked us if we'd like to walk up to see the waterfall, so we followed them up a stone path.

We didn't get far before the path turned from stone to dirt and roots, packed down by decades' worth of feet. The path branched toward the river, where a tree had fallen and created a bridge over the troubled water. We were led down the slope into the river, where Yuwaddee and Thamonwan proceeded to shampoo their hair. First explored the area while Ariel, Jennifer, and I sat and relaxed in the middle of the current.

After an indeterminate amount of time, we headed back down for lunch. Our hosts had met up with some friends of theirs and shared a picnic lunch of lettucy fish wraps, similar to the boat restaurant's but different in that they were stuffed with rice noodles. For dessert we had ricey corn swimming in coconut milk, eaten alongside a hunk of fresh mango. I had the pleasure of enjoying my favorite soft drink in the world: melon-flavored Fanta. (You have no idea how happy I was to discover Japan was not the only place in which to find melon-flavored beverages!)

Jennifer had foregone lunch to follow Chat back up the mountain, to go to the top he'd said. Ariel and I deliberated for a brief period before following suit. We adventured farther up the path, braving the wilderness as it became more of a trail. We met Chat and Jennifer as they were coming down. Jennifer expressed her happiness to see that she would not have to fetch us from the bottom; apparently the hike was really worth it. We all made our way to the top of the trail, ducking under fallen trees and climbing rocks where necessary.

The exhilarating hike finally ended at the base of a huge boulder, which we climbed to see a pool that formed at the base of the waterfall's apex. I took a few pictures from the top of the boulder before crossing a makeshift walkway of tree roots and rocks before seeing the real goal of the trip.

Left: Me, Jennifer, and Chat, proud of ourselves for making it this far.
Right: Indescribable.




After depositing our things, we all jumped into the pool to swim around and gaze upward at the sight before us. Ariel and I entertained ourselves by swimming into the current created by the cascade that would carry us toward the dam that created the pool. I'm not sure who suggested it, but Chat eventually convinced Ariel and I to attempt to climb the waterfall. Ariel, sadly, did not get far, but I followed Chat up to about as high as we could physically reach. Once the rocks were not slippery and wet - past where you can see on the left side in the photo - it was really not much of a challenge. I eventually began to worry more about getting down than slipping and falling, so after ample time spent looking out over our domain, we eased our way back down.

Ariel pointed out that where she had ended her climb she'd discovered a good place to slide down into the pool. Chat went first, and I followed. The ride was bumpy, but not near as bumpy as it looked. We encouraged Jennifer to try it out, and even after deciding it was a terrifying ride, she went again so we could all get our pictures taken going down. (Ariel will hopefully get these to me some time before the week is out.)

Before we lost too much track of time, we decided to head back down the mountain. It was almost harder going down than up, but even walking proved to be fun. Nonetheless, we were happy to see the familiar stone path. We met up with the gang, who were dozing and watching the kids enjoy the river. If only they knew. :) After a few more random photos, we loaded up and headed back home.

Thamonwan and I hit the market and a 7-Eleven for dinner tonight, and I've been here blogging now for a few hours. There are many more photos to see of this weekend, and of the rest of the trip for that matter, and I hope some day soon you will get to see them. You can at least have that small part of the experience. My reflection for the day: it took me until January of 2010 (or 2553 on the Buddhist calendar) to realize just how little is conveyed in a photograph. I hope I never have to choose which of my senses I value the most, because just one will never be enough after this trip.

Until next time.

The Last Few Evenings

So you're probably wondering what happened this week? Of course not. :P Regardless, I will tell you, because that is my job. And I have been slacking.

For the most part we have done what was promised to us: slipped into a teaching routine with some spantaneous evenings that mostly involved quiet time at home with our host families. The other night (Tuesday maybe?) Dr. Hal, Prof. Bock, AJ, our host families, and I made it into Trang town for a very little bit of shopping and dinner at the market. After eating some sticky rice and chicken in the back of Chalong's pickup, we went for real dinner at a restaurant, the name of which I never learned. (I'm under the impression that restaurants don't need names here. As long as you've got tables, chairs, and something that looks like food within view of the street, you'll get customers.) Later, a few of us went with Prof. Bock to the silk shop she visited last week. It's a nicer place where you have to take your shoes off to go inside, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was the owner's house as well.

Wednesday was uneventful. I went to bed early after dinner at home.

Last night, however, was a celebration for Chalong, who had just returned from Bangkok in time for a his birthday party! (Chalong is Dr. Hal and Prof. Bock's homestay, along with Yuwaddee and their boys, First, Fresh, and Future. They're a great bunch of people.) We ate at a place called Sudaporn, which was like an upscale, sophistocated version of Rainforest Cafe. It even had its own little ticket booth kind of thing. The atmosphere was awesome, the company was wildly entertaining, and the food was amazing. What more could you expect in Thailand?

Left: Kampai! Salut! Cheers!

Right: AJ and Chalong.

The gang. Can you guess who is who by now? I feel bad for covering up Sam, but I didn't realize how short she was. You can see I stooped quite a bit!

This morning before school, Prof. Bock and Dr. Hal went to the market for some fun stuff to have for a Friday lunch. They gave me some pictures to post so you can see what the market looks like. Obviously this isn't the only one, but they all kind of look similar once you've seen a few.

The lovely lady in the blue is Tanawan. Dr. Hal, of course, is the farang in the purple shirt.

When I got to school, I found out from Prof. Bock that there was to be a wedding reception at Had Samran after school was over. OK, I thought, maybe it's just a matter of having room for it here instead of someone's yard. It made sense at the time. The funeral dinner appeared to be outside someone's home, and the uneven terrain made the whole thing rather difficult. The assembly yard of the high school seemed like an appropriate place, so when they started setting up tables and a stage everything just kind of looked correct.

That afternoon, we heard that there was an eclipse, so we ran down to the teachers' office to get a view. The Internet tells me that this is slated to be the longest annular solar eclipse of the millenium, only visible from this half of the world. Wow, how lucky are we! It would have been cooler to see from Central Africa or the Maldives, since they got to see the annulus, but a partial eclipse is pretty frickin' sweet, too.

After school, Gao told us that people were waiting for us, so I was afraid we would have to introduce ourselves again. Luckily he just meant Tanawan and the others, so we sat down for a bit. Then I was told that Thamonwan was waiting for me. Before I took off, Tanawan called after me. As I turned, I saw a chopstick with what looked like a sausage stuck on one end coming at me. Tanawan popped it in my mouth and asked if I was hungry. The hilarity of all, and the fact that it tasted pretty darn good, forced me to nod my head and mumble "arroi-ka" (it's delicious) through the hunk of food in my mouth. I hurried off to find Thamonwan as I chewed the rest.

You see, Sam and I had worked out that tonight would be a good night for shopping, not knowing about any wedding party. So it ended up just being the two of us accompanied by Thamonwan. But it's OK, because it was a great night!

A 秘密の写真 (secret photo) I took of a woman's order at KFC. The shopping mall in Trang has a huge KFC display in the front and a disappointingly small restaurant inside. We checked it out, but ended up leaving with nothing but some tasty strawberry limeade drinks.

Instead, we went to a cute little restaurant called Richy's. It has both European and Thai food, as well as a coconut cake that is famous in Trang. Sam and Thamonwan both had fried rice with shrimp (Thamonwan's was nice and spicy), while I decided all of Sam's talk about getting spaghetti from her host parents made me hungry for Italian. I got what was called something like macaroni in tomato sauce with shrimp, but it was really penne in tomato sauce with shrimp. False advertising does not mean it is not as delicious as it sounds. By far one of the best dinners (food-wise) I've had yet. Sam and I both decided that since the place was famous for its desserts, we should get something. Unfortunately, the coconut cake was sold out, so we settled for a scoop of strawberry sorbet.

After we talked about the differences between American and Thai diets, it was time to take Sam home. She dutifully took us deep into the woods of a rubber tree plantation to find her homestay, where I saw what appeared to be the healthiest dogs in Thailand. We bid farewell to Sam and navigated our way back onto the main road. Here we are at home, relaxing after a long, yet short week.

Tomorrow we are going...somewhere. Our options were to go to a waterfall, a cave, or visit a hill tribe...and somehow it was decided that we are going rafting. Perhaps one must raft from the waterfall to get to the cave? In any case, when I know more, so shall you. And sorry, you'll have to wait about 24 hours for the info. It'll be like a little surprise to get you up nice and early in the morning!

OK, well I'm all sorts of ready for bed now. Thanks for being patient with me; I promise I'll do better to keep you informed. (And speaking of which, we already have the schedule mostly worked out for next weekend! Tuesday morning for you, I will try to have posted detailed information about our trip to Chiang Mai and when we will be headed back to the States.) Until next time.

Reflection Time from the Students

Since we are getting college credit for this experience, we have been asked to keep journals of our thoughts and reflections each day. Tuesday was our first due date for them so that Prof. Bock and Dr. Hal could read what we have so far. Dr. Hal thought it would be a good idea to post some of what we've said, anonymously of course. So here are a few quotes from the students. You are free to guess who said what, but don't expect any prizes if you happen to be correct.

"...We went to the night market. This was neat to see. To get there we took the sky train which was really neat also. We also had to take the subway [where] we got lost. But it all worked out.
"By this time I was exhausted and drained every way possible. But it was a good day, just very long."

"Tonight we got to spend time just to chill which was amazing. It was good to just relax and not have to worry about anything. The air of the ocean is so amazing and the view is still shocking. I am in love with everything. I really think this trip will change my life."

"I wish language were something concrete like math. It’s so hard telling a student that they are both right and wrong. How can they understand that? It would be nice if every class was like 5/1. They are so receptive to my teaching, and I think they genuinely enjoyed my being there."

"When we got back to [the] hotel we learned how to be good foreigners."

"I love it here, especially the people and the beautiful surroundings. I'm even loving this weather, since we have more snow. I [knew] that this trip [would] change my life forever but I didn't know it was going to be this much."

"My first experience with [a] Thailand school was absolutely breathtaking. I love how they all wear uniforms and give respect to the teachers/elders. Every morning they stand outside and have a routine of raising their flag and saying a prayer.
"We each had to introduce ourselves and say a little speech. We were all very nervous, but did very well.
"Learning how to teach English is very difficult and I hope I do well with my students.
"After [a] lesson on the warmer, we went back to the resort for dinner and slept."

"Today we woke up the earliest so far and it was totally worth it. ...Soon later [at the floating markets] we turned a corner and it was full of people, food, and more thingsto buy and try. Everything we floated by I tried and shared with everyone on our boat. I just thought it was really cool how people turned their boats into kitchens."

"Again, my expectations have been proven to be completely inaccurate. Koh Lao Liang is probably the most beautiful natural environment I’ve ever visited, and the man-made additions to the island were surprisingly un-intrusive. Professor Maureen said at some point that something like that could only exist in the movies, and it’s amazing to me the sort of things in the world that are so far away from me."

Before I Forget

(Anyone know that song?)

OK, so I finally got the photos from AJ, who is now marked as an author for the blog. He accepted the invite just in time for me to get the pictures organized, however, so with Professor Bock's help I narrowed down the options and am ready to share them with you.

Left: On the party boat New Year's Eve.

Right: I guess there's a story about a monkey who won't leave you alone if you don't give him money. Professor Bock suffered through the experience.

Left: The floating market. There was a bit of a traffic jam with boats.

Right: Professor Bock and Yuwaddee relaxing after the floaing market.

Seating arrangements meeting the governor.

A few traditional sights in Thailand. The flowery thing is like a giant corsage. The shoes, of course, belong to students who are not allowed to wear them while in the school buildings. Unlike in Japan, though, some schools allow teachers to wear them inside.

Left: Visiting the Reclining Buddha at the royal palace.

Right: Women have to wear a particular style of skirt in order to enter the palace.

Scaling the tower at Wat Arun.

Sam and Ariel (respectively) in their schools.

 AJ on the left, me on the right.

Island Retreat!

This weekend, I found myself cursing my new camera for a few reasons. One: it wasn't waterproof (and still isn't). Two: it's just a camera, and can only capture a small amount of the beauty we experienced while on our retreat. I hope the pictures I did take are sufficient enough to make everyone in the states jealous.

Saturday morning I got up early to accompany Thamonwan (my homestay mom) to Had Samran school to gather supplies for Children's Day. This is a national holiday in Thailand, and the local high schools set up what I may as well call a carnival for the elementary students. There was food, games, dancing, even a few inflatable attractions (pictured). At this point, I almost wanted to stay and enjoy the festivities because camping isn't really my strongest ability, and I was a little nervous about our trip. (Plus we didn't have time for breakfast, and the food smelled really good.) Eventually, however, Tanawan (a good friend of Dr. Hal's and an all-around awesome lady) met up with us and we all loaded into a pair of pickup trucks and headed for the pier.

(Left: AJ and Ariel catching some sun at the bow. Right: The gang, from left to right - Dr. Hal, Professor Bock, Ariel, Sam, AJ, Beo, Tanawan.)

The pier was more or less a private dock behind someone's house. Our vehicle of choice was a longboat with a few benches and some shade, which was sufficient for our journey. We met our boating crew, who were happy to describe the surrounding islands to us and the typical fishing activities that take place in the area. We sped across the ocean for about an hour and a half until we arrived at Lao Liang Island. Our first view of the island was basically a huge, square rock covered in trees with a beach on one side. As we drew nearer, we could see signs of civilization.

(Picured: Sam and my tent. Very roomy and comfortable.)

"Camping" is really not an accurate descriptor of what we did this weekend. Lao Liang is a popular tourist getaway for island hoppers in Thailand. Yes, you sleep in tents; that is about as close to primitive as it gets. As soon as we got there we ate the lunch that Tanawan, Beo (SP?), and friends made for us, and then we ate lunch served by the island staff. About an hour later, the group went out for some snorkeling lessons (and a nap for Sam and I). After some lengthy exploration of the island's caves and rock formations, Beo and friends played fisherman and caught us some crab for dinner that night, about an hour afterward. I don't suppose anyone in Omaha has ever had seafood that fresh. :)

 (Left, top: fresh crab. Right: enjoying the appetizers. Left, bottom: left to right: me, Sam, Ariel.)

There were a few raised cabana-type things, and we all sat beneath a thatched roof and learned how to dismember a crab to get to the tastiest parts. I don't think I've ever even had crab legs before, so this was very new to me. Not long after, they produced a plate of steamed shrimp, also fresh from that afternoon. I believe it was Professor Bock who used the word "oxymoron" to describe these shrimp, as they were about as big as my hand - and very delicious. I double-dipped, as Ariel put it, a hunk of shrimp in an extremely spicy garnish that tasted great. Too bad it left me panting with a scalded tongue. After the appetizer, we had a buffet of standard Thai food and some great conversation time with both our Thai company and a few of the guests on the island. I think it was about 1:00AM by the time Ariel and I finally said "good-night" to all our new friends.

I woke up to the alarm I'd set for 5:40AM in order to see the sunrise from the beach. Since the beach faces the northeast side of the island, we didn't get to see the sun set, so I was determined to see it do something cool while I was there. Lo and behold, I saw the kind of thing I thought only existed on preset computer wallpaper images. It was a breathtaking start to the morning.

Of course I went back to bed when I'd had my fill of it. At about eight o'clock we all met for breakfast of Thai rice soup and tomato onion omelettes. A few of us even got to enjoy banana-filled pancakes and cereal. We had a little meeting to catch everyone up while we ate, and then we had a few minutes to pack our things to go island-hopping. A few sad farewells to our new friends, one last view of the island (Castaway style), and we were off.

We dropped anchor several meters away from the beach of a similar island to do some more snorkeling. After so many hours of it the previous day, however, we were eager to try something else, so off we went to another island. This next one was a very very fancy version of where we'd already been. They had a few restaurants, a mini-mart, a swimming pool, and small houses with air conditioning in place of tents. Someone remarked that it was no wonder how nice everything looked with all the yachts floating off-shore. We had a quick bathroom break, time for a picnic lunch of octopus stir-fry with pineapple and watermelon, and then we were off for Morakot, or Emerald Cave - sans Professor Bock, who took the opportunity to catch a nap.

The boat took us around to another side of the island, where a number of other vessels were parked. Dr. Hal commented that the last time he'd visited the place, there were hardly any visitors to the cave. So we didn't have the place to ourselves, but at least we weren't the only non-Thai people for miles. We all put on our life jackets and jumped into the water. Beo told us to grab onto a lifesaver and each other as he led us to the mouth of the cave, which rose to about six feet at its highest point above the water level at the opening. Inside, the water reflected on the ceiling of the cave, coloring it an emerald green. Tanawan and Beo instructed us to roll onto our backs to get the best view of the natural formations. Eventually, the light grew dim enough that we couldn't admire it anymore, and finally it was pitch black. As we turned a corner, we quite literally saw a light at the end of the tunnel (and I got a certain Rocky Horror song stuck in my head, which I sang to get an idea of how high the cave was). As Beo and the current pulled us along, our eyes were drawn upward. We stood in what looked like a long-expired volcano, now overgrown with vegetation. The rock extended so high that it was clear the only way into this place was the way we came - or by helicopter if you're feeling lucky. A small sign described the history of the place as an old smuggling hideout for pirates back in the day. Smart pirates! After quite a bit of open-mouthed staring, we headed back into the cave. My eagerness to move quickly is probably to blame for the wrong turn we took and the cut I got on my finger on our way back to the boat. Don't worry, though, everyone's OK.

(Left to right: Tanawan, Professor Bock, Ariel, Beo, Sam; sitting outside the museum/preservation center.)
We picked up Professor Bock, who had made a cozy little tent out of her umbrella and Ariel's floor mat, and were on our way back to the mainland. We stopped at a long island on the way to stretch our legs and check out what looked to be a tiny dugong museum. According to Tanawan, the dugong is like a mascot for Thailand. About forty minutes after we set sail again, we arrived at the pier, boarded a van, and were off to our respective dwellings. I took a lengthy shower and sat down for dinner, and here the day concludes for me.

We've all agreed that "what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand," so this is the abridged story of our weekend. You're welcome to make your own assumptions and press us for more details, but for the next couple of weeks you'll have to be content with my assurance that everything is going swimmingly, so to speak. Enjoy the photos, and I promise I will have some from Bangkok soon. Until then.