Saturday, May 30, 2015

Dinosaur Outing!

The area in which we live is known for its dinosaur bones and fossils.  Because of this, there are HUNDREDS of plaster and cement dinosaurs gracing the towns.  40 foot tall brachiosauruses dominate roundabouts, 3 foot tall T-Rexes act as welcome statues in people’s homes, and others are just used as decoration in civic spaces.  It’s pretty fun.

On Saturday, Becky’s coordinator P’Tic, took Shelby, Becky and I to the dinosaur MUSEUM, which is about a 20 minute drive outside of Kalasin.  It was actually really really nice to get out of town, and to actually see what the surrounding area looked like!  The Northeast (which is where I am) is the driest part in Thailand and it really was apparent in the type of foliage I saw.  Although still jungle-like, the forests were much more arid and the ground was lined with crunchy leaves.  The type of agriculture was also different, and instead of rice fields, we were told that the staple crop of this region was cassava. 

So as you probably guessed, the museum was built where the actual bones were found, which is at the base of this medium sized limestone hill that sticks out like a sore thumb against the flat landscape.  P’Tic told us that one night (very long ago, I don’t know exact dates) a monk had a dream about the dinosaur bones and where they were located.  The next day, he went to the hill in his dream and there were the bones.  After this, they built a temple on the hill.  As we drove along the base of the hill, we quickly realized that the affinity for plaster dinosaurs only increased in proximity to the fossils.  It felt like we had travelled back in time, and that there were actual dinosaurs foraging in the forest.  I also had a laugh at the image of Buddhist monks meditating in the forest beside these ancient (albeit plaster) beasts.

Our first spot was the dig site, which is about ¾ of a mile away from the actual museum.  It was AWESOME!!  There were about 3 skeletons that had been left in the stone and my god they were enormous.  It was so cool to be able to visualize the position in which they had died and fossilized.  The people of this province are extremely proud of their dinosaurs and some of the Thai royalty has even come to visit.

We then drove down to the Museum where we wandered for about an hour.  Pretty much all the exhibit descriptions were in Thai so I didn’t take away that much information, but just the experience of being in a dinosaur museum, in Thailand was very fun.  The true excitement of the museum was actually us!  EVERY SINGLE PERSON stared in wide-eyed wonderment as we perused the halls.  You would have thought we were the dinosaurs and had come to life they way they were staring at us.  At one point a Thai family asked to take our picture and the results are pretty hilarious.


All in all, a very exciting time!

One of the many dinosaurs around the mountain

The bones!  These bones were huge



T rex

Pretty deep shit for the dinosaur museum




Behind the scenes


This kind of lawn decoration can be found in the majority of Kalasin entryways

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

A few days ago, I was walking to the nearest laundry machines because I had sweat probably a gallon into each article of clothing.  A lot of families in Thailand will convert their homefronts into some kind of store, be it a drink place, school supplies, clothes etc.  I came here with very little clothes, so I stopped at one of these hoping there might be some items to expand my wardrobe.  

It happened that just as I had walked in, the mother and her two daughters were preparing to have dinner at table in front of the store.  In a wordless exchange, she invited me to have dinner with them!  Mind you I had never met any of these people, they were just acting on pure generosity.  I would have been foolish to turn such an opportunity down, so I accepted the offer.  The meal included a variety of meats and vegetables including some kind of dried skinny sardine like fish, fried fish, a type of beef sausage, some kind of ground meat mixed with broccoli, Som Tam and of course rice.  It was a peculiar meal being that literally NOTHING could be said, because neither spoke the other’s language.  I won’t deny that I felt a tad awkward in the complete silence.  We all smiled a lot, and I said the few words I know pertaining to food “aroi” for delicious “gai” for chicken “mu” for pork.  It turns out the youngest daughter was a student at my school, although not in the grade I teach.  The three of them were just a kind, beautiful group of women and I felt so lucky to be here in Thailand, experiencing the kindness of these strangers (corny).  It was a moment for sure. 


Near the end of the meal, another young girl arrived and upon introducing myself, they promptly asked for my facebook.  Facebook is pretty huge here, as in people are posting MULTIPLE statuses throughout the day, and everyone friends everyone, and people like to “like”.  Once the meal had ended, I thanked them all, and went on my merry way.  This meal gave me a powerful sense of gratitude.  Even though nothing was said, I experienced such a strong human connection, perhaps made that way DUE to the absence of words.  It reinforced the feeling that cultures, languages, and beliefs aside, there is great capacity and a natural tendency for human kindness and my heart was left feeling full of it.


The kind women

Thursday, May 21, 2015

ALERT- this post is random, cheers!

So it is almost the end of my first week teaching here at Anukoolnaree!  The amount of students I have is pretty staggering, and with 20 classes a week it's quite tiring, but the kids are just so sweet.

The rest of the week went pretty similar to Monday.  I have about 3 classes per day on average, and the rest of the time I spend at my desk, grading work and preparing the semesters units and lesson plans.  I am still in the pursuit of finding the perfect method of organizing my classes in terms of english level, grade level and whether or not they are a S.M.A.R.T. class.  Initially I wanted to plan out the entire semester in depth, but quickly realized that it would be much more simple to take it week by week with the a general idea of the semester in my head.  I will be covering the topics of weather, leisure and hobbies, shopping, and food and drink.

Although all my students are either in M1 (7th) or M6 (12th) the varying levels of English is so pronounced.  Some of my classes fly through my lessons with ease, while others barely understand when I ask them to write their name on their paper.  The vibe of each class is also very different, some are very studious and respectful, while others are chaotic.  But I have found that all classes are required to greet the teacher with something along the lines of "Goodmorning Teacher, welcome" and then I say "thank you! How are you?" and they say "Good and you?" and then I say, "I am good thank you, please have a seat."  When they initially did this, all I heard was a chorus of gibberish and so for a few classes I just smiled and nodded and was like "yes".

There are quite a few of us in the English department office.  The English teachers Doorji, Shelby and I, the new adorable Chinese teacher Ting, 4 student teachers and then about 4 or 5 Thai teachers.  It is very cool to be placed in a setting where you encounter so many different ethnicities, and I really enjoy getting to know all of these people.

One of the student teachers, Yooyee (I don't think that is the correct spelling) just turned 22, so we had a birthday lunch for her.  Various dishes were served including a mushroom soup, some kind of sweet noodle, roasted chicken, Tom Sam, and dish exactly like Tom Sam except instead of papaya, noodles were used.  People, if you want your mouth to enter the fiery pits of hell, then you should probably eat this salad.  I had one bite, and I felt very good initially, then suddenly I began to feel this creeping sensation down in my throat.  Very soon after that, I was in full blown spice demon mode, and my only solace was a cup of coconut yogurt I had brought from home.  I felt very much like a Farang in this moment, and all the Thai people present just laughed and smiled.  BUT, they had not tried the salad yet.  Yooyee and her boyfriend took a few bites, and within seconds they were sweating profusely, and I'm pretty sure Yooyee had tears in her eyes.  It was actually so hilarious!  Anyways that secretly made me feel much better about my spice threshold.

Later that afternoon, I went down to the bathroom to pee.  The stall that I chose had a window that looked into a broom closet.  Just as I was getting comfortable, I look into the broom closet to see the worlds most MASSIVE gecko staring back at me.  It had huge yellow eyes that penetrated my soul with that cold reptilian stare.  For some reason this giant, yellow-eyed gecko creeped me the heck out!!!!!!! So I promptly peed and left.  The end

So Shelby and I have been on the hunt for bikes since we got here.  I truly want a motorbike, but that is a much bigger investment, so at the moment, we were looking for some good ole man powered bikes.  Ryan, a teacher at a different school had told us that our landlady had a few extra bikes lying around, so after school Zuri helped me ask P' Noi if I could borrow one.  She said yes!  The bike I am using is a cute little orange cruiser that was probably made for someone about 5 feet tall but it will do the trick!  Anyways, after we dragged it out from its home under the stairs, she gave me a pump to inflate the tires, which I promptly did.  The front tire went swimmingly and I had filled in no time, unfortunately things took a turn for the worst upon reaching the back tire.  The air valve was some peculiar contraption that I have never seen before.  I began to unscrew it, and the cap fell to the ground, right into a hole in the sidewalk (all the sidewalks are essentially slabs of concrete over drains, and often times there are holes where the water can drain).  JUST MY LUCK.  But it was okay, because the valve was a two part valve (wtf) and it appeared that the important piece was still attached.  So then I began unscrewing THAT one.  Well that one was in direct contact with the pressurized air in the tube, and just as I was finishing unscrewing it, the air pressure shot that goddamn piece right into the freaking hole with the accuracy of bloody sniper.  So within 30 seconds, I had somehow managed to lose both parts of this valve device into the abyss that is the drain system of Kalasin.  The tire promptly became as limp as a day old hot dog and that was the end of my excitement over the bike haha.  I have been waiting until the weekend to see if I can just buy the screw thing attached to the valve or if I must buy a whole new tube.  Either way, yay for having legs that function when I stupidly incapacitate my bicycle.

Another thing all of us farangs have been somewhat concerned about is getting exercise while living abroad.  For the first few days, I had been doing various exercises in my apartment, which has been alright.  Yesterday, Becky and I went to yoga.  It was really cool to practice yoga in a Buddhist culture, and challenging being that it was all in Thai.  But people, the coolest part by far is the fact that an hour long session costs, wait for it... 10 Baht.  10 freaking baht, which translates roughly into 30 cents.  I dig it!

Anyways today, I felt oddly energetic after school, and decided I would run around the lake next to our apartment.  Being that running is the bane of my existence, and I only do it when no other form of exercise is available, I planned on doing ONE lap around the lake.  It is not that far, but it is something.  I got in my workout clothes (and my hot oeg orientation shirt, shoutout to all the oeg'ers) and hit the lake.  I went around 6:30, just as the sun was setting and it was beginning to cool down.  Apparently me and every other resident in Kalasin thought running at this hour would be a good idea, because the track around the lake was packed.  This was actually kind of nice, because I didn't feel quite as obvious as if I was the only person, let alone a giant farang, getting my run on.  The run went pretty well!  I had my music, the weather was nice, there was a giant aerobics class (which looks hilarious and amazing and I WILL be doing it) and people were out enjoying the evening.  In fact, it went SO well, I did ANOTHER LAP.  Round of applause to myself.  By the time I had finished, I was beginning to remember why I dislike running, so I guess that shows I got a good work out in right?  Upon finishing and entering my apartment, I began to overheat harder than penguin in the Sahara.  I took a cold shower, did NOT dry off, and lay beneath my fan in hopes that I would experience a temperature drop due to evaporative cooling.  False.  Anyways, the moral of this story is pretty much that if you run in Thailand you will get so incredibly hot, not even a "cold" shower will do the trick.  But I'll be darned if exercise doesn't make you feel great.  So now I feel nice and tired and ready for bed.

Okay!  Thanks for reading! Till next time, toodle dooooooo <3

My new whip!  You can see the bastard hole that claimed the lives of my caps

Fiery demon noodle salad from hell

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Market Photos

Here are a few photos I have taken around town-

A Thai nightclub.  Instead of a DJ there were live performers, it was quite a production!

My riding a tuk tuk and looking like an ogre.

Puppiesssssssssss

Night Market

So many meats

I thought the contrast of the mint and the orange of the fish was so pretty

Mango and sticky rice, heaven in a plastic container

Making Som Tam

The full crab that goes in the Som Tam


Essential Thai ingredients

Curry pastes

A most peculiar looking fish

So many fish

A pile of Rambutan

This image was just too beautiful to not photograph. I just love the colors

Fish Circles

The colors!!! Banana leaves, lotus, mango, and I don't know the name of the yellow fruit.

We went to a Korean BBQ!  It was fun!

Cooking up our meal

Fishies for sale

Monday, May 18, 2015

First Day of Class

So today was the first day of class at Anukoolnaree and what a day it was!
Zuri, Shelby and I headed to school at around 7:15.  By the time we arrived, about an hour before school actually started, thousands of students milled about the campus and central field.  For the first hour, various faculty and staff gave speeches, none of which I understood (obviously).

Shelby and I have found that our school is rather casual about most things, so we did not receive our actual teaching schedules until about an hour into this morning's festivities.  After all the speeches were said and done, the students spent the morning registering  and actual class did not start until after lunch.  All the English teachers used this time to look at their schedules, figure out where the classes were located, and then we just hung out.  Lunch finally rolled around and Shelby, Dorji (another English teacher from Bhutan) and I headed down to the canteen for lunch!

The canteen is a large open air structure in which there are at least 10 food stalls you can choose from, ranging from curry, to deep fried meats, to crepes, to ice-cream (all heavenly) and nothing costing more than $1.  I chose a red curry with pumpkin and a fried egg and omggggggggggggg too delicious for this world.  Any who, we finished lunch and it was finally time for me to teach my first class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Thai education system has a G.A.T.E. like option for the gifted and talented which is labeled with the acronym S.M.A.R.T. (I don't recall what each letter stands for/how elitist is that acronym haha).  My first class ever was indeed an M1 (7th grade) "smart" class.   I had a basic lesson plan in which I introduced myself, and asked them questions about themselves.  I had budgeted the time in the lesson assuming they would have a lower level of English but this class blew me out of the water and I literally went through my entire lesson plan in 15 minutes......  So we played games for the rest of class and they loved that.  As some of you may know, the rainy season is just beginning here in Thailand and a massive storm rolled through during one of our games which in turn created complete pandemonium!  Students were running around, rain was pouring from the skies, thunder was rumbling, windows and doors were slamming.  It was actually quite exciting.  I think both the students and I could agree that it was a fun lesson overall (or maybe that's just me).

Next up was a standard M1 class, and their level of English was at the level I expected.  We had been warned that in a class this size (50 students), there will be a constant buzz in the air, constant chatter, and sure enough there was.  Although the students did not grasp all of the lesson, I think they understood the basic concepts.  It is amazing how much energy and enthusiasm is required in these classes, I was going all out!

For the last class of the day, I had an M6 or grade 12 class, and I didn't really know what to expect in terms of their English levels.  I introduced myself and then had them write a paragraph about what they did during their vacation (they just had a two month vacation).  Students are much more calm at this age, so this class was rather tame.

Obviously this is only my first day of teaching, but I truly enjoyed myself (although completely pooped).  The students are so incredibly adorable and any time they see you around campus, they greet you with a huge smile and a wai (palms together and head bowed, like a namaste in yoga).  I am very excited to move through the semester, plan effective lessons and hopefully get to know the students better (not sure if that is possible with ~700 students but I will try).  I hope these posts aren't tooo boring, I kind of view this blog as a personal (and PC) journal so sorry if the details get tedious.

PS The students pick THE MOST hilarious nicknames, today I encountered God, Nurse, Donut, Wave, View, just to name a few.

Selfie with the students duh

my schedule!

My desk!

The canteen

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Kalasin

Okay, to continue where I left off on my last post-
So we arrived in Kalasin at 5:30 in the morning on a Wednesday.  The three of us emerged from the bus bleary eyed and confused, and were left standing on the sidewalk with no knowledge of what to do or where to go.  Eventually our school coordinator, Phe Lucky (Phe is the term you use in front of an elders name, a form of respect) came and picked us up and drove us to our accommodation, the Lucky Mansion (if that is not a perfect name for a brothel, I don't know what is).  Turns out Lucky Mansion is about a three minute walk from the bus station, which is perfect for when we want to travel on the weekends.

Upon arriving at Lucky Mansion, the landlord Phe Noi greeted us with a warm Thai welcome.  The apartment complex has about 14 rooms, and she opened up a few and told Shelby and I to pick our room!  The all were pretty similar but I ended up choosing room #106, because it had a cute little green table and pretty blue and green sheets (such a girl).

I was a little worried Phe Lucky would have activities planned for the rest of the day, but she only asked if we needed anything and then allowed us to get settled, which I was very grateful about.  After a week of orientation, adjusting to the new timezone and an overnight bus ride, I was exhausted to say the least.  For the next few hours, I vegged out so very hard, it was lovely.  Eventually I decided to take a walk around Kalasin, because I needed a few things for my apartment and I wanted to see the town.  I'd always thought I'd had a somewhat decent sense of direction, but apparently that is incorrect because within 15 minutes I got so unbelievably lost it was hilarious.  Every street looked the same to me!  I continued to wander knowing I would eventually make my way back.  Finally, at the end of the street I saw a Seven Eleven, and I knew there was one near the Lucky Mansion.  Thank the gods it was the same one!

Once I got back to the apartment, I met Zuri, another English instructor at our school.  She is from North Carolina, and will be staying another six months here in Kalasin.  I am so grateful that she is here!  She immediately gave us the DL on Kalasin.  We went to the Walmart of Thailand, Tesco Lotus, where I stocked up on the basics.  We took a tour around our school Anukoolnaree, and met a few of the faculty and staff.  The school is large, approximately 3500 students.

On Friday, our school was hosting their orientation for Matayom 1, or seventh grade, which is the grade I will be teaching.  We arrived at about 7:30 to a group of 800 seventh graders gathered on the lawn.  They did some activities in the group and we introduced ourselves, and then were split up into their respective classes.  Each of the English teachers paired up with a Thai teacher and had a basic English lesson!  We used a workbook that was written by a native Thai speaker and unfortunately it was somewhat redundant, but at least it was something.  I wasn't sure how I would handle teaching a class of approximately 50 kids but it went over rather well!   By the way, these kids are the most adorable creatures I have ever seen.  They were all so shy, yet full of energy.  We played a game near the end of class where we split them up into two groups and they had to race to spell out the given word correctly.  They were all so enthusiastic and really helped each other out and enjoyed the game.  I am so so so excited to be teaching them!  (although the Thai teachers told me they turn into naughty little monkeys after the first week).

School starts on Monday, so for now the other instructors and I are just hanging out, and preparing our basic lesson plans.  I am teaching grade seven, and each one of my classes only meets once a week, but I have 18 classes, so that totals out to about 800 students....... There is no way I will be able to remember all their names.  Over and out!


Matayom 1!

Cutest

How pretty is this classroom!  Straight out of an Anthropologie catalogue

 More classroom

A platter of food that unfortunately I cannot name most of.  The center is Som Tam, or Pappaya Salad, some kind of fried chicken skin, noodles, a cucumber like vegetable, and other things

We were so confused and scared as to what these were!  Turns out they are called Khai Yiao Ma, or a Century egg.  To make them, the eggs are soaked in a saline solution of ash, clay and salt and it can take between two weeks and a few months to complete.  They tasted just like a normal hard boiled egg, maybe a little saltier.


This fish is about 2 ft long, and chills in one of the coffee shops we have been frequenting.  I am a fan.

A buxom statue.


The lake near my apartment.

The road that my apartment is on.

Fun plant life!

I REALLY want to get a motorbike while I'm here.  I'll keep y'all updated.

A spirit house, these are found outside of most houses and are used as a place to make offerings to the spirits that live in that building, so as to keep them happy.


A sinking rubber ducky.



Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Sawahdee Kah!  Okay so it has been a complete whirlwind since I arrived in the Land of Smiles.  I will do my best to cover the important stuff, but I may go on a bit of a ramble.

I flew out of SFO during the afternoon on the 5th.  From there I enjoyed a 12 hour flight to Beijing, and promptly hopped on to a 5 hour flight to Bangkok!  I flew with Air China, and I must say I had a really pleasant experience-  there was a lot of legroom, very updated planes, good service, I recommend.

Anyways, I arrived in Bangkok at about 11:40 pm.  Customs was easy and my bag made it through in one piece, but I stupidly forgot to write down any details about where I was staying other than the name.  A kind Argentinian boy used his wifi to help me gather more information.  The moment I stepped out of the terminal and into the Bangkok air, I was enveloped in a cloud of heat(recall that it is about 12:30 in the morning)! After wandering around for another ten minutes trying to decipher how the taxi system worked, I was able to hail one down.  I hopped in and told him that I needed to go to the Louis Tavern, naively assuming he would know exactly where that was.  Bangkok is an absolutely massive city and he certainly did NOT know where my hotel was!  After another few moments of trying to communicate (which simply did not work, due to our inability to speak each others respective languages), I showed him the phone number of the hotel and he gave them a ring.  The receptionist gave him directions, and he seemed to understand, and soon we were off!  I must remind you that there was no actual word confirmation about the destination.  He just nodded and smiled and I nodded and smiled and hoped to good lord above we were smiling about the same thing.


Bangkok at 1:30 in the morning had a rather eery vibe.  There were skyscrapers left and right but they were all shrouded in darkness, it was almost like the city had had a blackout.  The drive seemed to go on forever!  The entire time I thought to myself "you just gotta trust you are going in the right direction cause there is literally nothing you can do at this point"  By the time I was starting to fret, he pulled off the highway and into a suburb of Bangkok.  I was still unsure about our actual destination so upon seeing the Louis Hotel stamped across a building in green lights, I experienced a sigh of relief.  It was 2 in the morning by the time this whole debacle was settled and I was pooped.  I promptly checked in, met my roommate for a few moments and passed out.  ANYWAYS This story was not that interesting but after over 24 hours of traveling and very little sleep it felt very important at the time haha.


The next few days of orientation were filled with meeting new people, learning various teaching methods, and learning basic Thai.  There were about 75 of us Farangs (Thai word for white person), and we all bonded over our desires to travel, teach and explore.  I feel so grateful to have met all these wonderful people, and it has left with a sense of community in this country.  Because we were placed all around Thailand, I plan on traveling and visiting all these new friends.


On the fourth day, we visited the Grand Palace in the heart of Bangkok.  I had seen photos of the golden structure but had no idea what to expect.  This place was POPPIN.  Tourists from all over Thailand and beyond filled the grounds.  Upon entering the gates, I was in complete awe.  It was as if every building had been crusted with gems (which was the goal of the architects).  Being that that would have been outrageously expensive, they used a variety of colored glass, porcelain and gold leaf to cover the walls, and the effect was breathtaking.  The buildings just glittered in the hot sun.  The Wat Phra Keaw or the Hall of the Emerald Buddha was at the center of the grounds and to enter you had to remove your shoes.  It was quite a sight to see so many shoes placed outside the Hall.  The Buddha itself was approximately 26 inches tall and carved from a single piece of jade, that was thought to have been found in Cambodia in the 15th century.  While walking around, a group of Chinese girls got very excited to see some Westerners and asked if they could take a photo with us!  I felt pretty special haha.  We then had an amazing lunch along the river and headed back to our hotel for more teaching courses.


On the 2nd to last day of orientation, all 75 of us hopped onto buses and drove out to the Kanchanaburi Province to the east of Bangkok.  We stopped in the town of Kanchanaburi to see the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.  Wikipedia does a better job of explaining the history so here it is- "The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labour brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam (Thailand) and Burma. Two labour forces, one based in Siam and the other in Burma, worked from opposite ends of the line towards the centre."


We walked across the bridge and down to the shore on the opposite side where we encountered a herd of Brahman cows.  They are the most peculiar looking creatures, with HUGE droopy ears a bulbous forehead, a hump between their shoulder blades, and a large skin flap hanging down from their neck.  We all fell in love with them and had a huge photo op.  I was so sweaty, one cow went to town on my arm, licking all the delicious salt from my body.  I did not expect their tongues to be so very rough, but I was straight up exfoliated by a cow tongue.  


After the bridge, we drove a little further up the river where we boarded these restaurant structures that floated on the water.  At first I thought we would just be dining on the shores of the river, but quickly realized that we would in fact be cruising along the river, pulled by a much smaller tugboat.   After dinner(which was delicious duh) a few of us hit the dance floor for some seriously sweaty and awkward dancing times.  We were allowed to dip our feet in the river and it was pretty much the opposite of refreshing, I'd guess around 80 degrees.  The water was murky and all I could imagine was some anaconda emerging from the depths and grabbing a wayward foot. No one was consumed by a snake and we made it safely back to shore.


We spent one more night together at this fancy resort and then somehow it was our last day of orientation!  A few of the teachers were leaving directly from the hotel and we said our goodbyes.  The rest of us headed back to Bangkok where we would go our separate ways from there.  I actually felt rather sad as everyone departed, we had all really bonded during this time together.  


Near 7 o'clock, there were only a few of us left at the hotel.  Me and the two other girls also going to my town were to take a night bus to our town Kalasin, which was about an 8 hour drive away.  We were dropped of at Mochit, the worlds largest freaking bus station.  It was a three storied monster, with hundreds of buses filing in and out at all times.  We finally boarded our bus (which are super nice and spacious!) and went right to sleep.  I woke at about 5:30 the next day and ta da we were in Kalasin.  This post is absurdly long so I'm going to cut it off there.  All I can say is I am so so so lucky and happy to be placed where I am.  More on Kalasin soon!

*I apologize for the length of this post and the inevitable typos!



Chinese Beer

We drank a lot of miracle water so hopefully some miracles will happen

This is a durian, and honestly it tasted just as bad as it smells

Rambutan

OUT OF THIS WORLD pad thai for like $1

Dragon Fruit

Bridge Over the River Kwai

Brahman Cows, check out them ears

salt lick status


Smudge or Gollum the kitten upstairs from me

They have such fun toiletries here, i bought Gingko body wash, lemongrass shampoo, and kaffir lime and mint conditioner

My home!

Bedroom




View from behind my apartment

House rules

View from my door

Lucky Mansion!



Grand Palace

Detail


There are pretty little water basins like this everywhere



People would dip these flowers in water and then sprinkle it on their head to cool off. How romantic is that

A woman applying gold leaf

dinner cruise

what our contraption looked like