wanderlusty

This is Super Bingo.  He lives in our garden.  He is about the size of my HAND!

Yes.  I already know it.  My father has made me feel guilty enough.  But as I keep telling him… there hasn’t been much happening that has been worth blogging about.  We haven’t been traveling, or doing any cool sightseeing.  In fact we have been spending our days getting our new home set up and exploring the surroundings.  I didn’t think anyone would be interested to hear of my blender buying, or food shopping.  :)

But so far living in Thailand is great.  We eat fresh (probably organic) food everyday from one of the local markets nearby.  I’m usually running off to them picking up curry paste, veggies, and fruit while Brock is home doing something Brock-like.  I love going to the market.  Its always SO busy and colorful.  Not to mention the crazy things you see.  All sorts of fish and crab, some alive, swimming in a shallow pool of water… or in the crabs case with their claws tied up and their only sign of life is their eyes moving about.  The crabs are bright blue, and the red snapper  a deep pink.  All caught fresh that day.  I haven’t really eaten any meat here, except for crocodile and barracuda once, but Brock is anxious to try and cook some fish.

Today was supposed to be my first day of yoga practice, and it has been sunny for a week straight except for today of course.  The day to day weather-goings-on effects you alot more when you are on a scooter and not tucked away in a vehicle.  I’ve got 30 more min before class starts, hopefully it stops!  I can’t wait to get back into yoga!

On the job front – I know everyone is eager to hear about this part – has been relatively quiet.  School has been out for a couple weeks now and we have been passing out resumes and filling out applications like crazy.  We have not heard anything back though… but I think we have a decent shot at some of the schools.  I ended up meeting the GM of the new Ritz Carlton and she said they may be looking for a teacher as well so… fingers crossed.

Today marks the end of the vegetarian festival, boo!  And on Wednesday we are headed down to Malaysia for a border run aka VISA run.  Sorry I haven’t posted any pictures, I’ll unload Brocks camera in the next couple days.  As WELL as post some pics of us roaming around Kota Bharu!

Ok talk soon!

Teacher Maris with important message.

I know I have let down my cult following in New York.  (Hi guys!)  But it has been a tumultuous past couple weeks or so.

We finally finished our English program, and now we have a week off to prepare for 20 hrs of Thai.  On our last teaching day, Brock had the opportunity to teach kindergarten… they were the most precious things I have seen in a long time.  As soon as we walked in every young pair of eyes looked at us excitedly.  He started off with a game of Hangman and built up so much childish excited tension in the room I thought it was about to explode.  They were up out of their seats – jumping and gasping – when the letter was incorrect, – screaming and smiling – when someone guessed it right.  As a teacher you try to give everyone a fair chance at answering, so I couldn’t help but burst out in laughter when the other teacher Matt, called on a child in the front corner. “What letter did you want?” A look of absolute certainty.  The kind of moment when you realize you have the correct answer and no one else has a clue.  The child brings his hand down and stand up.  ”X.” He proclaims in front of all the other students proudly.  I lost it.  It was so damn endearing.  The rest of the lesson was a whirlwind of children and little hands raising in the air.

We hiked Tiger Cave.  You can check Brock’s blog for pics.

Two days ago our motorbike was stolen.  The Thai noon suddenly became that much hotter when I realized I might be buying a brand new bike for someone else.  Long story short, my Thai girl friend Chun, came to the rescue to talk to the police and everything eventually was sorted.  Two boys were found with our bike taking the wheels off.  Luckily we only had to replace the wheels.  But the wheels were expensive for us nonetheless.

The best part of the past couple weeks was hunting for shellfish with my friend Chun.  She is 28 with a 2 year old Alexander.  She is married to another person in the English class Matt.  She speaks hardly any English and we always have a good laugh when one of us says something and the other person just stares for 5 seconds in utter confusion.  I like her alot.   We walked out on the land where the tide had receded from and walked through the muddy sand stopping to check out starfish, sea worms, crabs, etc.  I ended up having a good eye for the particular shell we were hunting for and picked up about 25 or so.  Whenever you pick them up they have a little claw will shoot out from the opening and try to gut you like a knight would with a sword. Its a spastic movement that definitely keeps you aware of  the tiny weapon.  It was peaceful walking around the inside-out beach.  Finding little creatures left in the tide pools.  Watching inhabited shells glide  s-l-o-w-l-y .  We were unable to cook them that day, but she promised to take me out again and show me.  We ended up eating at a restaurant that serves them by coincidence, and they had a rather normal taste.  The look of them – once pulled out of the shell – is an entirely different story.  It wasn’t something I would want to sit and stare at.

Been keeping busy with books, beach, and markets. Brock is always on a never-ending quest to download more American movies and tv shows.  Here I am in Thailand, watching COPS.  Like it was any other night of my life in Tennessee.  And it still is endlessly entertaining.  I wonder if the Thais would like it…?

Mid Day Pineapple stop.

There are little moments living abroad that make you smile.  Especially when it comes to how English is used and the various names of restaurants, institutions, etc.  Apparently a very popular theme for a business of educational nature is incorporating the word ‘brain’ into your company’s name.  Here in Krabi we have a ‘Golden Brain’ and ‘Smart Brain’.  I smile every time I pass by.

I woke up not in the mood to teach.  It was obvious it was going to rain.  Probably all day.  Ugh fine, lets go to the market and get the banana muffins I like and maybe it will light a spark.  Oh little bag of 4 muffins, you remind me of my mother’s banana bread she used to make. With the line of 3-4 pecans on top.   However, when I think of that… it is always, immediately, surely as the wind does blow, followed by the memory of biting into a thick slice and tasting a huge nugget of baking powder that decided it would not mix in with the rest of the crew.  Banana bliss… followed by powdery salty sour.  My mother never hears the end of it.

My class has just eaten lunch, and they are feeling the heat of the day, and just want to go home.  I understand, I do too.  Can’t you see that?  One girl in the back does not.  She is the ringleader of heathens.  The class is becoming boisterous.  Thai is being flug across the room from one student to another like paper airplanes.  And suddenly my room is full of them and I should be covering my eyes because everyone knows I can’t speak the language so I better just stay away. It was the first time I felt frustration as a teacher.  And was sure I would be experiencing it again.  I did my best to keep the class in order, but walked away feeling defeated.  I would have to do something different next time.  I spent a while thinking of what that might be.

Low tide. Creature hunting.

I taught a new lesson and our class was dismissed early.  The weather was nice so we packed up for the beach.  I was determined to find a yoga studio in Ao Nang.  Our bike sliced it’s way through the mountains and jungle and soon the emerald beach was on the horizon.

I was thinking to myself as I was walking into the water if anyone else in the world was as happy as I was at that moment.  If anyone else in the world had a job that made you feel like you were making a little difference, and allowed you to spend your afternoons floating in the ocean and feeling the current slowly trying to pull you out to sea.

I needed this.  I needed the beach today.  I needed to just lay in the sun.

We walked through the seaside town together.  ’We have Indian food! Good deal!’  ’Need a suit?  We have Armani, special price for you’, ‘Oh this? Its 300 baht… oh wait!  No… what can you afford to give me?  200?  Ok ok deal.’  We lazily walked along the shops occasionally stopping to give some little token a closer look, or to be politely hassled by some street hustler.

The sun is setting and the tide has receded to reveal tide pools and oceanic creatures.  We walk along and stop to watch a snail, or hermit crab, make it’s way to wherever those things make their way.  And stare in amazement at the tiny trail they are leaving behind in the sand.  I look across the entire beach and realize that I didn’t just stumble upon one or two… but thousands are moving somewhere.  And some are just burying themselves in the sand, hiding, from what?  Beautiful shells… all moving somewhere.  And the broken ones, a shipwrecked home?

I find a sea worm AND a clam and play with them both.  I pick up the clam and its white tongue searches to find just what has caused the sand and water to disappear.  I put him back down and he continues to search for something in the sand.

Motorcycle ride back.  Its getting dark and the headlight of the bike illuminates the silhouette of Brock driving.  The cool wind in my face feels too perfect to put the face shield down, and I’m smelling incense, smoke from bonfires, and then nothing but clean fresh air.  I hear the jungle alive with insects and frogs.  I close my eyes and can’t believe the day I just had.

“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.” -Sylvia Plath

Yesterday was my very first experience in front of a classroom.  We have been in the midst of our TEFL training for about a week and a half now, and it was time to get some real world experience.  We had studied our lesson plans, laminated our visual aids, bought some spiffy new teachery clothes, and headed out first thing in the morning.

So we walked in. Kids are running around all over the school during their pre-school recess time.  I caught quite a few curious glances and giggles. We just stood around for a while in the main entrance and just watched all the kids play and scurry off to class.  Some kids were carrying backpacks as big as they were and it was cute to see a group of 2-3 of them all walking together.

So we make our way to the classrooms, take a seat, our English friend Matt is up first.  He has taught before and it shows.  Brock and I both take down lots of notes watching him.  I am already nervous about going and I have another two hours before it is going to happen.  Brock goes next and also does a good job.  Ok so my turn.

Hello class!  My name is Teacher Maris!  In unison, “Hello Teacher!”  You may sit down class.  In unison, “Thank you teacher!”

Ok wow, what an introduction.  All eyes are on me eager to see what is this farang (foreigner) is going to do next.  How am I possibly going to fill up this entire hour??!!  Ok calm down, just start talking.  So I start with a game of hangman… and the word was…”America!  That is where I am from!  America is a COUNTRY.”  And we’re off!  My lesson consisted of countries, landmarks, and using understanding the words have & have not.  I walked around and tried to give every child a chance to speak to me in English, and some of them were confident and could repeat relatively well.  Others would stand up, look up at me with this ‘deer in the headlights’ look and barely whisper..’yes, i haav bin du thailand..’  Some of the children that didn’t get it on the first try I encouraged to keep going.  If they were having trouble with a word, I would whisper along side them and correct them when I needed.  Once we got through it once, I said ,”Ok one more time” and they usually would do alot better and it seemed to build up their confidence a bit.  Once the lesson was underway I hardly needed to look at the clock.  Everything was going smoothly and quicker than I anticipated.

As soon as I was done I asked Brock, ‘ok how did I do?’  He said I was great! That boosted my confidence.  I’m really teaching, AND I seem to be fairly good at this.  The kids seem to like me, I had control of the class and kept everyone quiet and attentive, and they were all learning what I set out to teach!  SUCCESS!

Practicing English!

Brock helping some kids on the wordsearch during his class.

My whole class, like 44 kids!

http://www.vimeo.com/6410304  <–  go here to watch a short clip from class!

Ok so do I WANT to teach at a school?  I’m not sure yet.  There is no air conditioning and the schedule and lesson plans can be grueling I’ve heard.  I would like to look into an English program at one of the resorts.  Apparently they give you a free place to stay, free meals, and laundry + salary to live in the hotel and teach the employees English everyday.  Sounds nice huh?  Brock and I are looking into it.

The next couple weeks consist of 2 teaching classes a week, so we have a couple more lessons to come up with.  Its been fun though honestly.  Seeing the kids makes all the difference.

Ok so teaching ASIDE… I have eaten a few new things!  I’m still surviving on watermelon shakes don’t worry.  But I have a new found love for boiled peanuts!  Also, tried some weird neon green-skinned fruit that tastes kind of like a bland pear that they put a sugar/salt/and pepper mixture on.  Umm.. not so good.  Not terrible, just not good.  I’ve had cooked rice & coconut domes, the idea sounds alot better than the actual dome.  The rice gelatin doesn’t cook all the way through so the middle is like a weird bland gooey thing.  Ooh!  We also found these waffles they sell at the morning market, but they are cooked fresh with corn and coconut shavings inside!  They are pretty delish.  Fried bananas, sweet potatoes, and anything else you can possibly fry they do it here.  We went to the night market last night and saw fried maggots, crickets, beetles, and god knows what else.  That was the first time I’ve seen any insects prepared for eating.  And oddly enough… not too many people were lined up at that stall.  Brock tried to convince me to eat one, but I just wasn’t ready.  Maybe I could have done a little tiny cricket… but I swear some of these bugs were the biggest locusts you have ever seen.  And the idea of crunching down on something that huge… and feeling those weird hairy legs…ugh!  No thanks!

Oh, I also picked up these cute new towels!

You can't escape Asian design!

Ok, so after a WAY too long internet hiatus, we finally have gotten what seems like a solid internet connection in our apartment!  The past week-ish we have been relaxing on the most beautiful beach I have ever laid my baby blues on… there were not any roads on the island, you can only reach it by boat, so naturally any kind of internet time was pretty expensive.  I’ll try to sum up what has been happening the past week or so…

After a long day of airports and terrible airline meals we finally landed in Krabi town, backpacked around to find the cutest little guest house ‘Chan Cha Lay’, unpacked, took a luke warm shower in their outdoor bathroom (no hot water), sprayed on some bug spray, and decided to go grab some curry and beer.  We eventually wandered into this placed that looked like a log cabin tree house and kicked off our flip flops and settled into a nice little nook on the floor.  They were blaring some old American Rock, ACDC, Zeppelin, it was a nice break.  We ended up hanging out with these two awesome kids from Spain (Catalonia to be exact, they were VERY insistent on declaring Catalonia as their home instead of Barcelona) and they were so sweet and fun to hang out with.  We exchanged all of our typical facebook info and swore that one of these days…we were gonna meet up in Spain.  How could I refuse an invitation like that?

Next morning was spent throwing our stuff back into the pack and heading out to the beach.  We took a longtail boat only about 30 min and watched as the brown river water of Krabi gradually turned into that oh-so-lovely emerald green.  The little cruise was a great way to see the huge limestone monoliths that seemed to be dotting the horizon.  We were dropped off on the beach, had to hike a fair amount to find a reasonable place to stay (with AC of course), and then we hit the beach.  Let me tell you… words cannot describe the feeling of walking through some hot and sweaty jungle and it suddenly opening up into a pristine beach paradise.  The beach is hugged by towering limestone cliffs.  Breathtaking.  We finally made it.  And the best part?  There is hardly anyone here…

Brock convinced me we needed to climb through a little cave to access another beach, Tonsai, that is notorious for rock climbing.  After a tedious 20 min adventure we arrive and watch a couple guys try some ridiculous climbs up the cliff side.  Turns out we stayed a little too long and soon the sun was setting, the tide was high, and our once open cavern to hike inside was now full of water and it was dark.  I wont go into details about what happens next, but lets just say it was a long night of feeling our way through the jungle and ocean, TWICE, and we eventually turned back… ate some barracuda with a watermelon smoothie (my fave) and rented a hut for 6 dollars.  Hut = four walls and leaky roof.  Thankfully they had a mosquito net.  And I wont even go into the freezing cold shower situation, or the fact the power went off so the fan was useless, or the fact that there were creepy lacy pillows in the middle of the jungle.  I’m glad it is behind me, but I’m secretly glad I put up with it just to prove to Brock that I COULD.  :)

Side note : Thailand has the biggest bugs I have ever seen.

Ok so the next couple days we just hung out on the beach, soaking up the sun.  I got my feet scrubbed by this woman named Pai who hunted me down every day and kept hassling me.  Honestly it was nice… and afterwards I spied a couple other ladies that had finally given in as well.  You can buy almost everything on the beach.  We were just laying down, or I was burying Brock in the sand, and suddenly the beer lady would come around with beverages and grilled corn on the cob.  Does it get any better?!  Oh and I ALSO ate crocodile!  So delicious!

Living on the beach went by way too fast.  We had to pack up 5 days later and head back to town to find a place to settle down for a month.  Thankfully the beach is only 30 min away, and thankfully we found an awesome place in no time.  Krabi town is little and not very touristy.  Its been a nice change of pace being able to settle down and not have to worry about packing up in a couple days and finding somewhere new to stay.

So there are quite a few things I have gotten used to living in Thailand.  One would be… living with lizards in the bathroom.  They seem to love it in there and you can always find a little one scurrying about the walls or ceiling .  Brock claimed to have seen a big yellow one yesterday… but I have yet to see that guy yet.  Speaking of animals…we live next door to this tiny Thai food place with the most AWESOME cat ever named Futi.  I have got to post a picture soon.  He is so awesome and friendly, I’ve started calling him King Cat Futi and always peek in to see if he is laying around when I pass by.  I love him.  Anyway, another thing I have gotten used to is saying ‘mai yao kha’ which means ‘no thank you’.  Trust me, you use this alot.  And also ‘Mungsowriat’ which means vegetarian.  I have also learned that you are lucky to have one English tv channel.  Russian tv new is also broadcast in English for some weird reason so we watch that too.  Mainly just the news.  And the english movie channel has been steadily playing ALL the Die Hards and other cheesy movies like that.

So I’ve been drinking watermelon shakes and eating papaya salads as often as humanly possible here.  Taking it slow and wandering around the new town.  Found a great Italian place, and a super cheap cafe.  Speaking of cafes, the coffee here sucks.  Its almost always instant and it disgusting.  Ok not disgusting.  I still drink it almost everyday.  But I miss a nice hot cup of good coffee.  You know its bad when places advertise ‘Real Coffee’.

We started our school yesterday and at first I was excited… but now I am already bored.  The pace of the course is SO slow and Im often thinking about ‘Pillars of the Earth’ the book I am ALMOST finished with.  Such a great read.  Thanks for the tip mommy!  But anyways, I have been thinking more about whats going to happen next in the book than I do class.  We have our first teaching assessment next Tuesday in front of a local school class.  My group is going to be 9-10 year olds, and I have to come up with a lesson plan for an hour.  I’m pretty excited to be in front of a class for the first time trying to teach English.

Ok I’m gonna wrap this blog up with some more pics.  I tried to sum up everything that has been going on so sorry if it seems a little rushed.  Now that the internet juice is flowin’ free… I promise it will be updated more!  Love you guys!

Today was the start of the excursion away from our little part of Bangkok.  After walking around our fair share of the city, a days rest due to a massive sinus infection, and at time feeling strangled by the pollution and noise…we make our escape.

Like every train I hop onto… I have to be fashionably stressed and confused before departure.  Like always I am stressing in the cab ride, and asking and re-asking information people and other tourists if this is, in fact, the right train.  We said our goodbyes to Bangkok and boarded, feeling the sharp cool AC unit really going at it.  Funny thing about train AC… it apparently only works when the train is stopped.  Not en route.  So we immediately were pulling up our pants and shorts and trying to move as little as possible and try to keep cool.  We had a stewardess come by with a tray of drinks and some kind of a biscuit for refreshments.  I opened the biscuit… some kind of meat was inside.  So I nibbled around it and drank my pint sized cup of water.  Disappointing to say the least, especially considering I had 12 hrs ahead of me.  Next course!  Rice and some green curried vegetable with some kind of meat… great.  So once again I nibbled at the rice.  Thankfully I packed some soyjoys from home, and that helped both of us cope.  They are definitely not forthcoming with the refreshments on the Thai Railway.  Take note!

The train ride was interesting to say the least.  We passed fields and fields of nothing but lush green rice patties.  And we also passed empty patties that were replaced with reddish brown squares of mud.  I looked out the window and watched Thai workers carrying large hay heaps, bent over the crops tending to them, and some just relaxing along side the watery squares.  The landscape changed from open fields and farms to tropical jungle mountains, beautiful!  We passed over a couple of rivers and saw simple wooden houses no doubt inhabited by large families.  Cooking tools, trash, baskets, all hang around the individual houses.  It looks as though someone had not emptied their garage or trash in years, except this is not their garage.  Its their home.  And watching the communities roll by in the semi comfortable air conditioned train listening to my ipod sends a slow building and steady wave of guilt over me.

We make multiple stops in no-name towns all throughout the jungle and country side.  And soon the sun is setting and the sky has a tye dye horizon of orange and purple.  I look out the window again and see a mother holding her child, and it is staring at the train going by and waving at us.  I wave back as soon as I realize what is happening and hopes that he saw me.  I stare at the sky and watch the purple overpower the sun, and then eventually it all just turns to shades of dark gray and black.

The train ride has left me in a somber mood.  Not really fit to go out into the streets of Chiang Mai and find a place to sleep tonight.  Brock has promised me some comforting Italian food though!  Even though I love Thai food, I definitely still need some variation in my life.  I had a little taste of garlic bread at this jazzy blues place we went to in Bangkok called Brown Sugar and it has been calling my name ever since.  I find myself already missing little things, Even just thinking about fountain drinks with ice makes my mouth start to water.