Last Day of Teaching, Halloween, Loy Krathong, Teaching Kids

HELLOOOOOOO. It's been a long time since I've written, sorry to all you avid readers (all two of you!) So a lot has happened within the past week. I left off last time as I was about to head to that Chinese vegetarian festival that involved self mutilation. First of all, me and this girl Maria were wearing black pants and white shirts--apparently the color combo of the devil. Everyone partaking in the festival wears all white but if you're not you can wear any color, just not black and white together. So the second we get out of the car, people immediately start looking at me and making weird faces. It seriously felt like the music just stopped haha. Everyone else we were with was allowed into the festival but me and Maria had to watch from this certain line and couldn't cross it. Still got a pretty good view although I'm not so sure the view was a "nice view". When the festival kicked off there was a line of boys and girls probably 16-25 years of age and they were all shaking their heads back and forth and looked possess by the devil (in this case, me I guess?) Then everyone started screaming and they pulled out the knives. Scratch that. Machettes. They started GOING TO TOWN on their tounges. It was by far the most disturbing thing I have seen. They all stood up on these chairs and started slicing the machettes (and axes at one point) against their tongues and dripping blood all over their bodies. Sorry if this is gross but try being there to witness it! The point of the vegetarian festival is if you stop eating meat for a week you gain these super powers supposedly. Not so sure how I feel about that idea. It was really disturbing.

After that sweet moment, the last week came for teaching at the center. It went really well and on test day--Thursday--a lot of our students did remarkably well. There were a few, however, that were not up to par you could say. All in all though I'm proud of my students and by the end of the test they were all asking which level I will be teaching the next term and they all hoped it was either level 1 or level 2 (level 1 for the ones who stay behind and 2 for the ones who move up.) I don't find out what I'm teaching until a week--could be any level between 1 and 6!

Friday night was our Halloween party at the house for all our students and their families. I was a cat. Super original? It was really fun though a lot of my students actually showed up and brought some amazing food. There was probaby a good 150 people there. The three bad boys in my class (probably 16 years old) even showed up! I thought they'd be "too cool" to come. They were all sneaking to the side though drinking booze and smoking cigarettes which was sort of funny cause they look like theyre 12 years old but I guess they are actually allowed to drink here so whatever. At the party they gave us all of our certificates which was really nice and we got to say a little something to our students (check the above picture.) Karaoke was a hot part of the night as well. There was about 5 students who would not let go of the mic (also check the above picture of me singing with them.) It SO funny their favorite english song is........ZOMBIE.....by the Cranberries--if anyone knows that song you could imagine how much of a downer that is when you go from MJ or ACDC or classic Madonna to that song. But, they love it and sing it about 5 times a night at karaoke.

The weekend was a pretty mellow one, definitely fun but I wasn't really able to leave base all weekend. DEFINITELY bummed about missing Boulder homecoming :( but oh well there will be more of those!

Yesterday was the festival Loy Krathong. This festival involves building a floating candle/insent burner and floating it down a river, putting in it all your negativities in life and making a positive wish. We made them at the library yesterday morning with some of our students. For the base of the thing we used banana tree and then wrapped leaves around it. After that we strategically folded leaves to put on top to make it look pretty and then added flowers. 3 insents are placed in it as well as a candel. For good luck and to make it personal, you put a strand of hair, some part of your clothes (a little string from a shirt or pants) and part of your finger nail. So I went to the festival, indulged in some amazing squid, mussels, crab and shrimp, and then sent my hopefuly candle down the river, along with all things negative and a big positive wish for the year. They say if your candle doesn't burn out before it floats out of eyes view then your wish will come true--I'm pretty sure mine didn't burn out cause I followed it all the way down til it hit the waterfall (which totally blew out of the flame) but at least it made it that far! It was sooo beautiful though, we walked down this path lit by candels and came down to the river where there were HUNDREDS of people letting go of their floating candles and sending them down. The entire river was lit up by the candles with a calming and wishful smell coming from the incense.

Since we have 2 weeks before the next term starts we are teaching younger children this week. Ok, I was REALLY looking forward to working with kids but immediately after school was out I wanted to run back to the center and teach my 15 and older students. Don't get me wrong, the kids were beautiful, hilarious, and so cute but it was just so different teaching a class of 30 all crammed into a small room compared to a class of 15 where you have a huge spacious place to teach. I was in charge of teaching body parts and was lead to believe that my students only ranged in age of 10-13. However, I was sadly mistaken. My first two classes consisted of students probably 8-11. Okay no problem right? After a nice lunch I was thrown into a class that was not even on my schedule to teach and low and behold a room full of screaming 5 and 6 year olds! They were the cutest things ever but did not understand one word I said. I had to completely disregard my lesson plan and make everything up on the spot. I tried to channel my inner elementary school student to remember what the hell I did 16 years ago in school but could only remember duck duck goose. Needless to say, we played that game for a good 20 minutes. I taught them the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and although they didn't understand what it meant they were all cracking up because I'd just go as fast as I could and scream as loud as I could. I think they thought I was "ting tong" (Crazy.) After that I taught some 11 year olds but definitely saw no 13 year olds. The older students were very enjoyable and sort of understood the body parts I was trying to explain. Throughout every class, the favorite activitiy was definitely the songs Hokey Pokey and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. It was so cute, after each class all the students rushed up to shake my hand and two of them grabbed my bag of materials and walked me to my next class. After the last class of the day I sat in the library waiting the extra hour til school was over and I could get a ride home. As I was sitting there reading (The Book Theif--great book, read it if you have time) about 15 of the students I had taught today came up and just sat with me trying their best to speak english. They brought me 3 bottles of water, a juice box, 2 breaded dessert things, and a sheet of heart stickers. That made me realize I guess I didn't do as bad as I thought! But I am seriously drained and have to now plan my lesson for four different types of classes. Which is why I'm done typing for now and gotta run back home! I hope everyone had a great halloween, Boulder homecoming, and weekend! Miss you allllll! LOVE.

Pictures:

1: Getting my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate

2: Singing karaoke with the students, not every Thai understands halloween so we had to paint some of their faces at the party haha; showing them my sweet dance moves

3: Cutest little chub kid at the library where we made our candles

4: MY floaty candle

5: Floating mine down the river!

Tiger Temple, Room 69--Krabi Town

First and foremost, Happy belated birthday Grandpa! Hope it was a good one!

This weekend was a pretty eventful one! On Saturday, most of the volunteers (including myself) went to the Tiger Temple to climb the 1,237--yes 1,237--steps to the top for the most amazing view of, what felt like, all of Thailand. We woke up around 830 and ate breakfast then drove the forty-five minute drive to the temple. Once we got there I thought to myself, Okay this doesn't look thaaat bad, I can do 1200 steps no problem. First 200 steps took like 1 minute and then reality set in. At about step 500 I was already soaked in sweat, breathing abnormally loud, and asking myself if this trek is even worth it. Also, there are sketchy little monkeys everywhere! If you have a plastic bag they will literally snatch it from your hands, hiss at you, and then eat all your food! There disgusting stench also was NOT making the climb up the steps any easier. Monkey poop is not a good smell, let me tell you.

It was pretty funny, I videoed myself along the way so starting off you can see how high my spirits were and then 500 steps in life started getting a little rougher. At about step 700 is when I hit a wall haha. The footage gets even worse, I'm sitting on a step trying to talk about the view but it's so hard to understand cause my breathing is sooo loud haha. Then finally I actually made it to the top! I was really stoked and proud of myself when I stepped onto the temple floors at the top. However, a good minute later, my sour stomach set in and I ran over to this side of the temple where no one was and left the monks a nice little offering--my breakfast. Yes, I got sick on the very top of the Tiger Temple. Twice. And don't you fret! I captured that special little moment. But at least I can say I left a piece of me there I guess?

After that we all went into Krabi and ate lunch--pizza of course. Then last minute, I decided to stay in Krabi with a few other volunteers and go out. We stayed at the Smile Guest House again and the people, again, were soo unnecessarily nice! I love them there. They were soo excited to see all of us again and we sat and talked with them for a bit. The woman that owns it with her husband invited me to her house to make Rad Na (my faaaavorite noodle soup) so sometime soon I'll be able to know how to make that delicious meal! We went to this place called Blue Juice that's a dive shop, bar/restaurant, and hostel all in one and started drinking some beers there pretty early in the day and played a looot of games of pool. Somehow, 5 hours passed and we decided to go back to the hotel and get ready to go out. We all went across the street to the Kereokee bar and sang kereokee for a good 3 hours. It was horrible. I've never heard such an awkwardly bad range of voices in my life haha. Me, the only American at the time, 4 british people, 1 australian and 1 Canandian...you can imagine how awful all the songs sounded with that little mix. Me and this english kid killed it though with our own rendition of ACDC's Highway to Hell haha. But yeah it was hilarious and really fun. Especially the english music selection they had there. After that, Thip (the woman who owns Smile Guest house) had her son drive us to Room 69--an all Thai disco.

That place was reaaaaaaaallly rad. They had a live band that had about 6 different singers. The music ranged from like emo/punk, to rap, to reggaetone, to classic rock, and then of course a ton of Thai stuff. We got "bottle service" which means they hand you a handel of rum and some coke and let you make your own concoction. We split this amongst us teachers as well as a few of our students we saw partying there haha. But yeah, we stayed there till about 2am, danced, talked to the local Thai rapper for a bit--that was pretty hard seeing as all he could really say was "beautiful" and "i LOVE new york city" so that was about the extent of our conversation haha but he was a really cool guy with a good voice and rapped a lot of english songs. A thai rapper singing in english? Never thought i'd see that, let alone had no idea that even existed ha.

After that we got a ride back to our hotel with one of our students and were in the mood for a late night snack. The only place open was, of course, the pizza place! Pizza at 3am was not even the best part of this late night munching session. The owner, Chan--a middled age guy who loves playing guitar and classic rock, stayed open for us, baked us 2 cheese pizzas, sat with us outside on the stoop and serenaded us with all his favorite american classics. I loooved Chan. He played everything from Johnny Cash to The Eagles to Sublime. So we ended up eating the pizza, singing/listening to Chan play, and just enjoy life till about 430am then headed back to the hotel.

Got back to Smile hotel, passed out for a good few hours and took the bus back to Ao Leuk. It's sunday night here so we have our sunday night meeting in 30 minutes at 8 so I gotta go. BUT, forgot to say, THERE WAS A SNAKE IN OUR HOUSE TODAY!!! AHhh it was so scary, me and my friend Charlie were sitting working on lesson plans and she sneezed and felt something land on her head. She thought it was just a piece of paper but then started screaming when she realized it was this skinny, long, green snake squirling about the floor. I screamed like a baby and jumped up on my chair yelling for the boys to come down and get it out! This Canadian put on these huuge rain boots and proceeded to sweep the snake out to the outdoors but it slithered into a hole under these tiles so who the hell knows where it is now..SCARY. Okay, well I'm off to this vegetarian festival. It's this Chinese tradition where one week out of the year a lot of people stop eating meat and then they believe they have all these crazy powers like self mutilation. So there are people walking on hot coals, knives, and sticking skewers through these cheeks. I have a feeling I may be getting sick again tonight after watching this but when in Rome I guess? Hope everyone had a good weekend! Miss everyone! Love.

Picture Captions:

1: Monkey at tiger temple

2: Last steps on the way down! Reppin' Windowseat Pictures henry haha

3: Me sitting next to the Buddha, it was huuuge

4: Big Buddha

Mess up in previous post: I meant windansea ain't got sh*t on Maya bay or any other beach for that matter!

I Found Heaven

The title of this post is dead on. I have found HEAVEN in a few islands off the coast of Ao Nang. Today we went snorkelling around the most beautiful islands off the coast of Phi Phi Island! I'm not kidding when I say I saw the clearest waters, the whitest and softest sandy beaches, and the most beautiful surroundings...

We arrived in Ao Nang yesterday morning and from the minute we stepped out of the van I realized that this place was pretty westernized and touristy. There was a McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway on the main strip and tons of little shops, bars, and hostels all along the shore and alleys. First order of business was a massage with an ocean view. We found this really sweet place right on the water and got massages and facials for a total of 7 dollars! Best deal ever. It's funny, they have basically drag queens out here called catooyies (thats how its pronounced but definitely not how its spelled.) I had a girl masseuce but the other two I was with had catooyies (lady boys) and it's so funny, they aren't judged or looked at weird out here. Every sexuality is accepted here and they're treated just like ladies. Pretty interesting seeing them first hand but I think it's cool how eveyone out here just sees them as another sex, not like some freak or something like people back in the states do. After that I was in a daze and wandered around looking for a place to crash. We ended up staying at this pretty decent place steps from the beach. There was six of us so two to a room--me and this english girl Gemma shared a bungalow. At first sight the bungalow was so cute and quaint and just perfect for the setting, however later that night we realized it was a real dive. After shopping around, eating a ton of food (pizza thank god), and exploring the nightlife, me and Gemma went back to our bungalow and passed out. At about 4am I heard this weird scratching noise coming from the ceiling. About 5 minutes later Gemma shot up screaming "What the eff is that noise?!" Just her freaking out about the noise scared me and then I realized there was some sort of creature living in our room. We didn't know what to do since it was so late so we walked down the path to the lobby and found a "security guard" fast asleep on the sofa. We woke him up and using as many hand gestures as I could made him come back to our room to check out the situation. Once we got to the room he started messing witht he foset and checking the AC not really understanding what we were panicked about. Then I pointed to the ceiling and started making scratching noises and he said "OHH! Yes, there's a CAT up there!" and me and Gemma were like "Huh? A Cat?!" and he goes "Oh, noo a Lat, a lat!" Thank god I have been teaching Thais english and know that they cannot pronounce their R's for the life of them so he was trying to say "Rat, rat" So after we realized it was a rat we asked him to get rid of it and all the "security guard" said was "Sorry...tomorrow we fix." So from 4-7am Gemma and I basically slept with one eyed open hearing the most awkward and scary noises from above.

At 8am we met up with our group at Baracuda's Tour shop and headed for our boat. The weather was super scary at first. It was completely gray with rain startling to sprinkle down. I was pretty scared especially because Ao Nang is a big target for tsunamis. We were sitting on the boat waiting forever for Nong and his family to arrive so I started feeling a little sea sick and stepped off the boat for a minute. After I stepped off this guy stepped off too and we got to talking about how we were both from California and how he is on a six month honeymoon tour around the world with his wife (Who was on the boat at this time.) Completely harmless conversation. Little did I know my english friend Gill was back on the boat (not knowing this guy was on his honeymoon) saying to the entire boat "Oooo Hannah's found a good looking guy she's talking to!!" Gill was sitting next to his wife. She definitely heard. Needless to say, the boat trip was a little awkward after that, THANKS GILL!

So we finally took off and headed for the first island, Bamboo Island. It took about 45 minutes to get there and the skies were becoming more and more gray. Once we got to the island however, the skies cleared up and I hopped in the water snorkel in hand! Saw so many cool fish up close and the water was crystal clear! It was an amazing experience. After that island we went snorkeling at a near by cave and then to another beach I can't remember the name. Finally, we made it to Malay Bay--the beach from the movie The Beach! I got off the boat wide eyed and both amazed and confused as how the hell places like this exist on earth. There were definitely a ton of tourists but I didn't even mind. We were only parked there for forty-five minutes but I soaked up every second of those minutes. The sand is seriously like milk--I don't know how to describe it. It is so soft and white and the water is so clear and warm. Today was definitely one of the best days of the trip, let alone one of the best days of my life! Maya Bay ain't got shit on Windansea, or any other beach I've seen so far, sorry but it's true. I definitely think Ao Nang is the place I want to take Andrew and Serena when they come to visit! You guys would love it! So I'm back at Ao Leuk now, a little burnt and a little bummed that my dream vacation has ended and it's back to lesson planning and teaching. Hope you all had a good weekend! I highly recommend you all make it to the islands off Ao Nang some day! You will never regret it! Miss you all. Love!

Picture captions:

Picture 1: snorkel face...my eyes were burning from the salt water

Picture 2: Maya Bay--the openning where we came in from
Picture 3: Me on Maya Bay

Picture 4: Me with this lantern thing we bought at dinner where you light it, make a wish, and it flies up like a baloon sorta thing--really cool when there are a lot in the sky at night

Picture 5: thai massage on ze beach

Bat Scat!

Hellooo! Today was quite the day...for starters, today was Friday which means we go into the village and do some sort of community service. I was on kitchen duty this morning so I was up at 645am scrambling around with the other kitchen people trying to make breakfast for everyone. After that we went down the road to this Buddhist temple where a few monks live and picked up trash. Picking up trash at 930am a little hung over with 90 degree weather was tiring to say the least. A bag of trash, 2 pepto bismols, and one long and hot hour later, we were done and moving on to this cave for lunch. We got to the cave and I cannot even begin to describe how incredible this thing was. The first thing you see is this calm and peaceful little lake/lagoon surrounded by trees and filled with lili-pads (spelling?) Once we walked past that we entered the cave. This thing was seriously insane looking. Throughout the beginning of the cave was this crystal blue lagoon of water, we followed this for a little bit but once deeper inside the cave the water came to an end and it was just sand and crazy looking rocks. When I say rocks I'm talking about "rocks" that look like they should be on the moon or something; they were coming from every direction--above, below, left right, everywhere. Then we moved onto this one area that was probably 200 feet in circumfrence and was just sand and rocks--this part seriously looked like you were on the moon. After that we had to climb a ways up and down and in and out all these little caves to reach the "mouth". Once we reached the final spot to climb up in order to get outside the cave and have a good look at the surroundings, I suddenly realized this cave looked exactly like the one from Aladdin. Okay yeah, lame childhood flashback but if you saw the movie you know what I'm talking about. These huge rocks and boulders lead the way to this opening where you could look out and see nothing but palm trees. Immediately I asked myself how the helllll am i suppose to get up there?! There was nothing left for me to do than to head up the rocks--afterall, I wasn't gonna be that one girl that just sat at the bottom and waited for everyone to come down bragging about how cool it looked. So me and my shweet hiking boots (thanks dad) rock climbed that shiza and made it to the top with few problems. Actually, the only problem was all the BAT SCAT that covered the rocks. Bat poo looks and feels exactly like dirt and really doesn't smell so it wasn't that gross but gripping all the rocks and knowing my hands and legs were covered in mozzy spray (mosquito repelent), sweat, and now BAT SHIT really made me crave a shower I guess you could say. Once I made it to the top though the climb was completely worth it. The view from this opening of the cave was unreal. All you see for miles is palm trees and green jungle. Nong--the guy from the restaurant next door that we always go for a beer at-- was the tour guide again. He is a great tour guide with great english and makes sure that we are as safe as can possibly be. It was funny, he had about 6 boys from the village come and help out to keep an eye on us tourists to make sure we didnt fall or anything. These boys were literally straight out of the jungle book--they all climbed in barefeet or sandals and ran up and down the rocks with NO problem whatsoever. They were seriously running in circles around us all.

Hanging out at that viewpoint was nice until I realized the only way out of the cave was to go back the way we came. My first thought: Shit. My second thought: okay this is gonna be a great memory and it's all worth it! All the girls followed this one staff member the exact way we came up but I followed Nong and two other boys and took the shorter--but harder--way down. I was quite impressed with myself if I do say so. I was charging down these rocks as fast, if not faster, than the three boys I was with. Once we made it back to that moon spot we waited about 20 minutes for all the other girls to meet up with us and then headed back towards the opening. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I dominated that treck back. These hiking boots have really come in handy dad! I was leading the whole group out of the cave--something I thought would NEVER happen in my life! Even Nong said he had his doubts about me and rock climbing in the cave but was very impressed at the end haha. So hey, maybe rock climbing will be a new workout for me? Ya never know.

We made it back to the lagoon area and ate lunch there. At that point I was almost black from all the bat poop that was all over my hands and legs, but like I said before it was WELL WORTH IT. Had a nice little picnic lunch with everyone by the lake and just relaxed after that two hour climb.

Thursday was my first day of teaching the entire hour and a half class without sharing it with anyone. It went really really well and was the funnest class I have taught! The subject was descriptive words like blue eyes, blonde hair, big mouth, big nose, curly/straight hair, etc. I teach at 7pm and this kid Dan teaches at 5pm so we wrote our lesson plan together and thought of the best games to play with our classes in order to demonstrate all the descriptive words. We did a slap game and then a "chinese whispers game". Chinese whispers is where there are 3 lines of students spread out and I tell the last student in each line a setence like "Short, curly, red hair and blue eyes" then that student has to tell the next student in line and so forth then the last person has to shout out "I have short, curly, red hair and blue eyes!". In order to make this game more interesting me and Dan made these hats with fake paper hair (brown, blonde, gray, and red) and fake eyes that they had to stick on their faces like sunglasses. So when the last kid in line found out what the sentence was they had to run to the pile of hats and eyes and pick out the right ones and put them on. It was SOOO funny seeing these Thai people with these awkward hats and eyes trying to say they had blonde hair and blue eyes. They all loved the game. After that game we played "Stand up if you..." This game is sorta like musical chairs where the person in the middle says "Stand up if you have green eyes and brown hair.." Then everyone who has brown hair and green eyes stands up and runs around looking for a new chair to sit in. 1 person gets left out and then has to be the one in the middle. Since everyone here has black hair and black eyes I made them wear the disguises for this game too. All in all it was a good lesson except for the fac that I finished 20 minutes early so I had to drag the games out for an extra 20 minutes--but I don't think my students minded to much obviously.

After that lesson we decided to do a "hut crawl" and hit up every hut that served beer on the 15 minute walk home from class. Don't worry Mom and Dad, only 2 "huts" were open. It was really fun though, drank some beers and had some laughs.

That's about it so far. We are going to Ao Nang tomorrow to hang at the beach then go out and THEN SNORKEL on sunday! I cannot wait! This snorkel spot, like i mentioned earlier, is going to be heaven on earth! I'll write about it as soon as I get back! I think I'm gonna take another shower now to make sure that all this bat scat is off of me! Miss you all! LOVE.

P.S Hendo, I'm getting some good footage out here so hopefully you can edit a little video for meeeee?

Picture Captions:

Picture 1: The very beginning of the bat guana...poopy

Picture 2: Climbinb up to the top of the cave--looks like Aladdin huh??
Picture 3: Buddhist temple where trash pick up was

Picture 4: playing Stand up if you...how funny do they all look with their hats on hahaha

Picture 5: trying on the sweet blonde hair and hat combo for the class

Weekend Fun

It's Sunday evening here and the weather has actually started to become noticeably better--not as much rain (maybe one solid rain session once a day only lasting for 20 minutes.) FINALLY we got some down time to relax, kayak, and go out this weekend! Thursday night we had a little party at our house with all the other volunteers to celebrate our first week teaching. It was really fun we just drank, talked, and listened to music until the wee hours of the morning. It's been really cool getting to know everyone here and hear their stories about why they came here or what they do back at home or what they've done in their life so far. Friday morning we had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to do some EFR traininig (some CPR course) so now at least I'm certified but seriously that was one of the hardest things I've had to do here. After going to bed at about 4am the night before and waking up at 730 am for breakfast, when it was time to learn all this emergency respondent stuff I was passing out during the demonstration--probably wouldn't rely on me too much to save your life, sorry bout it! I've become addicted to coffe here, I knew it'd have to happen at some point in my life, but yeah it's the only thing that keeps me awake during the day. Me and Emma (the other American girl my age) walked to the grocery store after and stalked up on some American staples-pringles and gaterade. After that we treated ourselves to a Thai massage for only $5!! I'm a pansy when it comes to pressure on my back so although they didn't walk on my back they dug their knees into my back and legs and arms and flung me this way and that to crack my back. At the time it was quite painful but the next morning I woke up without any pain in my back, a huge change cause I usually wake up in so much pain from this damn bed. On our way out of the massage shop I saw five adoreable little girls jumping rope. They ran up to us and said "Hello, how are you?!" and then I asked if I could jump rope with them and they were soo happy and said "YES YES!" I hung out with them for a little and jumped around like a spaz making them laugh. Took it easy Friday night to get ready for kayaking in the morning.

Kayaking was AMAZING. It was about two and a half hours long and we went through all the mangroves I was writing about earlier and saw four different caves and even ended up in this circular lagoon that is surrounded by basically huge cliffs so you can't see out of it. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I'm actually sitting next to the instructor in the internet cafe right now-- he says "Hi" and "AWESOME", that's his favorite "American" word haha. He calls me Miss America--not sure if he realizes thats a beauty pagent and what not but hey, I'll take that compliment! But yeah so we kayaked for about two hours and the last thirty minutes the rain just came down so hard but it was so nice after being so hot in the sun that when it rained on us it was a nice little relief from the heat. When we made it back to the kayak shop, there was a table set for sixteen. This was, hands down, THE BEST meal I have had so far in Thailand. They just kept bringing more and more food out for all of us. I had fried rice, chicken in a cashew sauce, vegetables, shrimp tempura (tasted more like a funnel cake shrimp thing--delicious), sweet and sour FRIED BARACUDA--pretty unreal, and fruit. About five minutes after my third helping of each entree food coma hit and I pretty much had to roll myself into the seung tao (their form of a taxi but its basically a pick up truck that everyone sits in the back on two rows of benches.)

After kayaking a group of us wanted to go out to celebrate this girl's 29th birthday so we showered and set off for Krabi town (about a 40 minute drive from Ao Leuk.) We stayed at this place called the Smile Guesthouse--it was sooo lovely. The people that live there are sooo sweet! They gave us beer and we ended up chatting in the lobby area for about an hour and a half before heading out to the bars. The owners were this cute little thai couple with perfect english. And of course their dog, named Brad Pitt haha! So after chatting with them for a little and developing a little buzz we headed out to this bar called Old West bar. This bar was all bamboo style with a pool table and some classic American music constantly playing (like CCR, Rolling Stones, or even Kings of Leon.) Okay, apologize in advance to you mom and dad. Basically entering this bar was the last thing I remember clearly haha. They have these drinks called Buckets--you can get a whiskey bucket, vodka bucket, rum bucket, etc. Me and this girl Charlie split a vodka sprite concoction bucket and wow that stuff will put you on your rear. They busted out a jenga and half the people had no idea how to play it so it was pretty entertaining trying to play that game and drink the buckets. After that bar I wanted a midnight snack (of course) and headed to 7-11 with the other American girl, Emma. Got some potato chips then saw a live band playing at this bar across the street so we wandered over there. This band was awesome (as far as I can remember...) and they played songs like grateful dead, oasis, and guns n roses i think. There we met an english guy and an american guy who were teachers near by. The english guy had been here for ten years, was now married and had a little thai baby that was the craziest looking hybrid of Thai and English. The American guy had been here for a year and wasn't planning on leaving at anytime. I can definitely see why they haven't left yet. Everything is dirt cheap here, the people are warmer and nicer than anyone you have ever met and the location is beautiful. Of course the American guy was from Jersey and I called him out on being a Guido--especially after he got up and sang a HORRIBLE rendition of some Oasis song, i really felt embarassed for him. Him and his buddies tried to get me to go up and sing something but I was too into my chips to even attempt to sing. After that we met up with the group again at a bar across the street. It was probably 3am and the owners were still up drinking with us and even brought a little cake out for the birthday girl. That's how sweet they are here. They'd do anything and everything for you above the call of duty.

Now here I am tired, hungover still, with massive amounts of lesson planning to do for the week. Definitely gotta get started on that! But I really can't wait to get back to the classroom, I havent taught for four days and I'm already missing it and my students! WEIRD. Welp, miss you all hope everyone had a fun weekend! Look for postcards soon!

Oh, PS to SOPHIE DINKIN: found your twin in a bar last night--he had your Peace Love and Crabs tye dye t-shirt! Dont worry, got a picture of him just for you!

Picture Captions:
Pic 1: Gemma (English), Dan (English), and me drinking in the lobby of the smile guest house (check out my hippie hair growing---verrryy niiiice)

Pic 2: Vodka Bucket

Pic 3: Jump roping with my new friends haha

Pic 4: Cave shot kayaking

Teaching, Nongs, and The Sweet Life

Hey everyone! It's currently downpouring outside right now--good thing I literally just stepped into the internet cafe or I would have gotten completely soaked. Hardest rain I've seen in a long time. Anyway, I finished my first week of teaching and oh my god it was seriously incredible! I absolutely love it! I taught twenty minutes on Tuesday and then forty five minutes yesterday (next week I teach the entire 90 min class by myelf.) Tuesday I taught them everyday objects like book, car, orange, yada yada and yesterday it was all about countries and being able to understand I'm from, you're from he's/she's from. The first and last pictures are of me teaching the class yesterday. I taught them countries like India, Thailand, America, Canada (which for obviously reasons shouldn't be acknowledge, everyone hates Canada right?), China, Germany, etc. The forth picture is of two girls playing the "slap game". The slap game is a fun game they get to play that brings the entire lesson together at the end. I put the students in teams of two and they have to stand in the very back of the room in 2 lines and when I yell a country name two of them had to race up and grab it and whoever did first then yells "I'm from blah country!! YAY" haha So in this picture the two hilarious girls were so into it that they actually ripped Thailand in half accidentally! I made them then shout out "WE'RE from Thailand!" Everyone gets sooo competitive during that game, its the cutest thing ever. I have some favorite students definitely like a little boy named Golf (prounced Gop?) and his sister Pop who are both really quiet but are catching on so quickly. Also a young man named Jong is the little trouble maker in the class but he's so funny to watch and I've already seen progression in him within these last two days. After having a near panic attack before my lesson (just a little nervous to teach for 45 minutes straight) and actually going through the lesson with the class I figured it was time for a nice and frothy beer.

Me and some others went to Nongs last night and got some tall boys (big beers Mom and Dad.) The owner of Nongs is a 26 year old named Nong (duh) and his mother. Nong has near perfect english thanks to our program which he started three years ago and has since finished. It was amazing talking with him and comparing stories and hearing about certain parts of Thailand that I have to travel to--like some island he's from that has about 40 pink dolphins supposedly. He's also in charge of taking us snorkeling (in 1 week!) He's taking us on the 4 island tour which is all around Phi Phi island! Google that and you'll see how beautiful it is! Also near Phi Phi is the bay from the movie the Beach so we're definitely hitting that hot spot up as well. I even convinced Nong into taking me fishing this Sunday at some freshwater spot near by, can't wait for that! Funny little story, I asked him what Nong meant in Thai and he said it means last son but that he has a younger brother. So I asked why wasn't your younger brother named Nong and all he said was "Accident!" Haha so his mom hadn't planned on the youngest son and so named Nong, Nong, thinking it'd be her last son. Woops! I feel bad for the last son who's name is just Dan and knows he was an accident and has to hear it every day of his life when he hears his brothers name haha! His mom was soo cute too. The picture above is a picture of Nong, his mom, and two of his friends.

The beer Leo (see above pic) is soo good and definitely hits ya hard. I think it's over 6% proof. After a few of those last night I was definitely having a good good time chatting with the Brits of the program. It's so funny during our training every day we have to do exercises that we would do with our students like say words and drill them over and over again. One word was batminton and I pronounce it "badmitton" (always thought it was spelled like that too.) So everyone in my program was like No it's batminton miNNNNton and I just kept saying mitton mitton mittttttton! And finally my teacher was literally like "NO hannah there's an N in it" which shocked me and I finally figured it out. Every one started laughing at me like I was one of the Thai students but it's "bloody" hard understanding all the Brits over here and the weird lingo they use day to day!!

This place is really amazing--I can't say it enough. Just the other day we were walking to the near by swimming pool/country club and we went passed it on accident and ended up in this beautiful meditation garden. There was loud calming music playing from a huge speaker and all these little bungalows that some monks live in. I even saw one monk walking around and tried to snap a picture of him but it came out pretty dark. It was the most peaceful spot I have found on earth so far. I love little things like that, you go down one little road and find the most amazing little hidden treasure at the end of it. There's a lot of places like that around here and I can't wait to show you all the pictures I've taken when I get home! We're having a party tonight at our house and then going out afterwards--kind of excited to see what the nightlife is like in this little village! Then Saturday we're kayaking (like I mentioned earlier) thru all these mangroves, I can't wait for that! Alright well I hope everyone back at home is doing well and I miss you all so much! Hopefully this rain stops so I can walk home instead of hibernate in this little internet cafe for a couple hours! Love.

Oh and PS! Since the english classes are free for the students and they don't have to be there, one student shows up wasted (mom and dad, that means drunk) to my class every day--it's sooo funny. I really don't think he's remembering any english but hey, at least he shows up!

First Day of Classes

Tonight was the first night of official English classes for the term (4 weeks.) We didn't do any teaching today but simply observed the staff. WOW it was seriously awesome watching how excited the Thai students get to learn English. There were about 6 in our class (small but will increase tomorrow supposedly) and they were just having the best time learning words and phrases like "How are you?" "Where are you from?" "Good morning", etc. We have to do a lot of drilling which is where they have to repeat the word or phrase over and over again and while they were repeating it this one woman was so excited she was literally out of her seat and kept screaming the phrase after everyone had been asked to stop. I thought it'd be weird teaching young adults but I think it's more rewarding just because they are at these classes to really learn the language to possibly get them better jobs or be able to talk with tourists. Ok yeah make fun of me, I got a little teary eyed watching them learn or attempt to learn English--just because it really hit me that I'm in this random ass town/village/i'd call it a shanti town/Thailand and making a huge impact on these peoples lives by teaching them a gateway language that can lead to so many different positive things. Really makes everything worth while! (Including the living situation...!)

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching! For the next four weeks (training period) I am in a group with three others and we trade off teaching. Tomorrow I only teach for 20 minutes, then the next day 45 minutes then finally next week I teach for the whole class period--90 minutes. I'm a little nervous but after seeing the students tonight I really can't wait. I'm in charge of teaching them every day objects like apple, house, phone, motorbike (that's ALL they drive here), ant, elephant (highly revered here), etc. So hopefully that won't go over so bad!

We had our first Thai lesson today and holy shiza, the Thai language is a very hard language. Tiger, Shirt, and Mat are all spelled Ma but they all have a different tone so you could be saying watch out for that tiger but accidentally say shirt. Also, the number eight is quite possibly the HARDEST word to say. It's spelled bpat or something but pronounced like BAAAH (like a damn sheep!) Our teaching was crying he was laughing so hard when we tried to say that word. But it's pretty cool we have free Thai lessons and I'm gonna try and use the words as much as I can even though my accent is not so bueno.

I was on cooking duty this morning along with 3 others so I was up at 7 making breakfast for 20 people. Luckily I like cooking so they put me in charge of the scrambled eggs and I must say, they were a hit. For lunch we made curry pork burgers and veggie burgers. I was in charge of the veggie burgers (even though I could eat pork on the reggggg all day every day ha) so I had to mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and snow peas together with some eggs and fry them up. Actually turned out pretty shweeeeeeeet! Next week starts our Thai cooking classes by a pro so I'll definitely have to make some dinner for all you when I get home!

Also next week is the kayaking trip through these mangroves and caves--can't wait for that! Thats on saturday and on sunday a few of us are gonna venture out to Ao Nang for some beach action. Google image that shit. Unreal. Also, they have a McDonalds and a Starbucks so that's a major incentive to head out there, obviously.

Other than that nothing new here. Oh I fixed my bed that was literally a half pipe. Henry, it was probably 10 times worse than your LA bed, seriously no joke. Had to play musical chairs with the mattresses that are left and was able to get a decent mattress on my bed buuuut if anyone is SENDING OUT A CARE PACKAGE try and finagle a way to send a mattress k? Don't worry about the cost of shipping, just send it! haha seriously it's sorta pathetic, I'm so tired at the end of every day (waking up around 630am) that I head to bed by 11. But definitely not when the weekend comes, can't wait to check out the night life around here! Alright that's it for now. Will write more after I teach my first class!!!!!!!! Goodnight everyone!

PS trying to post pictures takes forever so I'll try and do it sometime where I have enough time!

Goodbye warm showers, Hello Krabi!

Hellooooooo (or shall I say, Sa wa dee ka) family, friends, and facebook stalkers! I have officially made it to Krabi town and let me tell you, it's definitely a culture shock! It is 7:30 in the morning here, 14 hours ahead of all you west coast people, and I am currently using the internet at the Thai Hotel. I met everyone in my group last night in the lobby and we all went out to a real authentic Thai dinner--pizza! (So far I've eaten Burger King and Pizza while in Thailand haha, just trying to prepare my tummy for what's to come by coating it with as much American greese as I can.) Everyone was extremely nice and very funny, they all range in age from 22 (me being the youngest along with another girl) to probably somewhere over 40. I'd say the group is split between under 27 year olds and over 35 year olds. There are two other Americans (one man from Northern California, and a girl my age from DC), the majority of Europeans are from England but there is a woman from Stockholm and one from Budapest. We drank some really good Thai beer called Chang, probably like our version of Keystone Light or maybe Miller Light but hey, a beer for $1.25?! I don't care what it tastes like for that cheap!

The flights out here were not as big as a hassel as I had planned on them being. The 12 hour and 45 minute flight from LAX to South Korea really flew by...I'm thinking it had to do with that nice Ambien you gave me, Mom! I watched about four movies, one documentary, and slept the entire way. Sat around in the South Korea airport for about 2 hours (nicest airport, EVER) and then hopped on a 5 hour plane ride to Bangkok. I landed in Bangkok around 11pm their time and really had no idea where to find my ride to the hotel. I walked passed all the people with signs and noticed these two Australian kids eyeing me and then they started following me. All I kept thinking was "Broken down palace, broken down place" (the movie where these two girls get framed by good looking tourists in Thailand and are thrown in jail forever) so I just kept walking but they wouldn't stop following. Normally I would have said hello or excuse me? But I was so tired I just wanted to find my ride home so I went to the nearest guard who showed me where the hotel taxi was and right when I went to the guard the kids stopped following me..a little weird?

Queens Garden Hotel was the name of the place I stayed at in Bangkok--I wouldn't exactly say a queen is meant to stay there but it was the nice of the two hotels I stayed at here. Everyone there was extremely helpful--plus there was air conditioning and hot showers! I did do one thing you are never supposed to do in Thailand...The Thai consider the head the most sacred part of the body and your feet the dirtiest part, therefore you should never point at anything with your feet. Well, being a little jetlagged, when the hotel asked where my bags were I aimed at them with my feet and one of the workers let out a little shriek and I knew right there that I had offended him. Haha opps! I fell right asleep after that and then woke up the next morning and got ready for my flight to Krabi. And now, here I am in Krabi.

I am still getting used to the time difference, I have taken pretty long naps the past two afternoons and so when I try to go to bed around midnight, I wake up around 4am tossing and turning for a good 2 hours. But they have this one American channel constantly playing movies so I watched Mrs. Doubtfire in the wee hours of the morning and then passed out again. That being said, I wake up around 7 every day so far to shower and start my day. Ummm yeah....no more hot showers until I get back to America I guess? This morning was my first experience with a freezing shower and it really wasn't as bad as I had guessed. It's gonna do wonders for my hair anyway--which is not as big as a jerry curl as I thought it'd be in this humidity!

So yeah, we are shipping off to base camp in almost two hours and that is where my home will be for the next two and a half months! Sorry if this one was boring, once I make it to base camp and we actually start the training process I will have more exciting stories! Love and miss you all so much!

Jumping on the band-wagon of blogging...

Alright, I told myself, as well as everyone else in my life, I'd never have a blog. But, seeing as how I am taking off in almost two weeks for Ao Luk, Thailand, and my parents are becoming increasingly nervous about my well being, this seemed like the most resourceful way to stay in touch with family and friends. Read it, criticize it, don't read it, use it as a screen saver--I don't mind as long as you're checking it daily to make sure I have not caught Japanese Encephalitis or been trafficked into the Thai drug cartel...(just kidding Mom..sorta!) My send off date is September 30th, 2009 from LAX and won't return until December 22nd, 2009.

A few things to know about my travels:
-The program is called Global Vision International (gvithailand.blogspot.com--check out their blog to see weekly updates on what exactly we're doing!)
-I'll be with approximately ten other volunteers of all ages and nationalities
-Dorm style living (ew?) eight to a room with bunk beds and no privacy...should be interesting
-The town is named Ao Luk which is in the Southern province known as Krabi (Krabi is more touristy but Ao Luk is extremely rural and has more of a jungle type atmosphere compared to the beach scene in Krabi)
-The program lasts ten weeks
-The first four weeks I will be completing an intensive training process which will end with me earning the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate
-The next two weeks are for touristy travels such as kayaking, hiking, visiting temples/ancient ruins, and beach bummin' it (obvi) as well as adding various Thai cuisines to my list of meals I can actually cook (so far that list consist of pasta, pizza, chicken Marsala--or really anything with mushrooms--and some bbq'd items here and there...needless to say there's room for improvement)
-The last four weeks I will have my own class of Thai students where, hopefully, my students will pass their English exams to promote themselves to the next level of learning English as well as give myself a sense of relief that I came to Thailand and did exactly what I had set out to do!
-I will definitely be meeting up with some friends from La Jolla who are traveling in and out of Thailand while I am there--if you know of anyone else (assuming people are actually reading this blog...) give them my email, I'm always down to meet up with anyone!
-Last thing, here are the addresses where I can receive mail and packages:
Mail:
Hannah Bayer
PO Box #7
Ao Luk, Krabi 81110 Thailand
Packages (hint hint):
Hannah Bayer
253 M. 2
Ao Luk, Krabi 81110 Thailand

Alright next time I "blog" (can't believe I am using that term) it'll probably be in Thailand!