Sports Day 2016

The school had its annual sports day. 

The week leading up to Sports Day we had the teacher/parent sports games! Last year we played soccer but this year we are playing chair ball. It’s like a mix between basketball and soccer. You play on a field but you throw the ball. When you have the ball you can only take one step. To score you throw to to the player a the end who is standing on a chair with a basket. We had our first game on Friday. I was surprised that I really had a lot of fun! We lost our first game by one point, our second game by 4 points and won our last game by 12 points.  

This picture makes me feel like a superstar!

It was nice to have a break from the normal teaching routine, but it was also a long, hot day. Thankfully, this year they rented really big shade structures so we weren’t right in the sun. The morning started with a parade.

I spent most of the day sitting on out area playing with and holding kids. Vespa (one of the younger kids that I don’t teach) was really snuggly and I help him a lot. He and Tipco played on my lap a lot. They pushed different parts of my face and I made different noises for each part they pushed. They got a really big kick out of that! They also thought it was super funny to play with my braid. They would tickle my ear with it or use it to make me have a mustache. There was a lot of giggling!

My team lost :( We got over all 3rd (out to three! Ha!). It was fun to watch all the races though. My favorite thing to watch was the final parent chairball game. It was a good one.

Sydney and Many’s mom brought me and Tanner a cold, thick chocolate drink. I’m watching my sugar intake, but I drank it and it was really divine!

After the sports were finished we had about an hour of awards. The had a 3 step podium for the first, second and third place winners. They gave out medals and took pictures. Tanner and I went up to accept the awards for tug of war and chair ball. We got 3rd for chair ball and got bronze Imperial medals. We got a tin of chocolate wafers for winning 1st in tug of war. It was the first time I had done tug of war in my grown life. It was a lot of fun, but hurt my hands from holding on so tight and made my arm super sore!

After awards were done we helped clean up. Before we cleaned up Basia’s Mom and Sydney/Many’s mom snapped some pictures with me. They had a couple colorful wigs and they had me put one on.  Also as Basia’s mom was leaving she said she might not see me before she left. So she gave me a good bye side hug. Then she grabbed my butt with one hand and squeezed it a couple times while making a honking sound! 

One of the parents made this video which I thought was fun!

Dissecting Fish

In my third grade class we dissected fish.  We have been learning about how different organisms breathe. We did it to cut out the gills and see what gills look like. It was gross and stinky and totally cool! The kids loved it.  I showed them how to cut out the gills first while they watched then they took a turn.  They worked in 3 groups and took out the gills.  They were so brave! In fact after they cut out the gills they wanted to cut out the eyeball, then a fin, then scales, then cut open the belly and take out the guts. It was a lesson that they won’t soon forget. Lin was the only one who didn’t like it. Her eyes were all watery and she kept coughing. She stood about 8 feet away from her group and just watched from afar.

Sydney, Jean, Yada and Praewa

Mhew, Yindee, Phuvit, FeiFei.  

Bonus, Ongry, Lin, Max, Ioon

Mhew, Phuvit, FeiFei, Yindee

Praewa, Sydney, Jean, Yada

This group cut off the fish head then I pretended to make it talk.  The tongue popped out and they all squealed!  Haha!

A Local Adventure

Kate, Paris and I decided that we wanted to go get our feet scrubbed and get all the dead skin removed. I had it done once in Chiang Mai and they used this scraper (almost like a vegetable peeler [gross sounding, I know, but very effective]) and loved how it felt. Kate got it done a lot when she was here as a teacher before. She has a friend at a massage shop and we decided we would go there. They use some kind of creme and wrap your feet in hot towels. Then the skin comes off easily. We hopped on our bikes and off we went. We went to Kate’s friend’s shop but they said she couldn’t do it until 4:00 (and it was around 1:45). We thought we would try to find somewhere else since that was a long way away. There was a shop really close and we popped in there. They said they couldn’t do it. We knew of another shop close to Tesco. When we stepped in it spelled really weird/gross. They said they could do it, but we chose to leave. When we had gone to dinner with Kung and his family he pointed out a new shop. Since it was close we popped in there. They said they didn’t do that there. By that point we thought we would just kill time until 3 or so and then go shopping (I needed food and fruits/veggies form the market) and go back to the first shop on the way home.

To kill some time I was going to show Paris and Kate this shop that has yogurt and sorbet. It’s close to a shop that does smoothies and makes their own homemade boba. We started riding over there when we saw another massage shop. We though, “What the heck. May as well see if they can scrub our feet since it’s right here.” And by that point we were joking about finding every massage place in the city, seeing as that was stop number 5. A lady with jewels implanted into each canine tooth was leaving the shop as we pulled up. When she saw us she went back inside. I think she words there…? We asked how much it would be and they told us 300 baht (about $10) which we thought was high. Kate thought her shop did it for 150 baht. We told them no thank you. Then they said they would do it for 200 baht, but we just decided to wait. Plus we weren’t quite sure if they understood what we wanted… Haha!

We got back on our bikes and headed to the yogurt shop. We pulled up to a red light and stopped. The next thing we knew, the jewel toothed lady (along with a teenaged boy and younger boy) pulled up next to us on a scooter. She recognized us and motioned for us to follow her. We didn’t know why, and we really just wanted to wait and go back to the first shop. But we acted like we didn’t know what she wanted (which really didn’t take much acting, because we really didn’t know). She had the teenaged boy tell us to follow them. The light turned green and we thought, why not? We followed the scooter on our bicycles. They led us down a side street and 10 minutes later we stopped in front of a massage shop on a VERY quiet street.

We went in and the jewel toothed lady talked to her friend (who seemed to be the shop owner). The owner told us to come in and sit on the massage tables. She knew a tiny bit of Thai and we tried to tell her that we didn’t want massages, we just wanted our feet scraped/scrubbed. We asked how much and she said 150 baht. Fair enough. We all laid down. Jewel tooth got on her scooter and left. The owner started massaging Kate’s legs and her 11 year old daughter came out and started massaging Paris’s legs. We laughed and said we thought there was a mix up. Kate told the lady massaging her legs that she didn’t want a massage. We only wanted out feet scrubbed. The Thai lady told her that we could get out feet scrubbed and an hour long leg massage for 450 baht. Kate told her again, “No massage, just foot scrub.” Jewel tooth came back and they started jabbering in Thai. The shop owner didn’t seem too happy. She asked Kate again if she wanted a massage (by now she’d been massaging her for about 20 minutes) and Kate again said, “No massage, just foot scrub”. More talking in Thai. Then the Thai lady asked Kate, “You okay?” Kate assured her she was and asked the Thai lady SHE was okay. She said she was.

Jewel tooth pulled up a stool and a bucket of water to my massage bed. She motioned for me to sit up and placed my feet in a bucket of ice cold water. She took each foot out and washed it with soap and a white bristled brush. Then she put on an exfoliating scrub and washed them again. She went to town with that scrub on my lower leg and that was not pleasant. After that she got out the tool they had used in Chiang Mai when I got my feet scrubbed. “At last!” I thought! She took one foot out of the water and started to use to on my foot. It only took about 4 seconds to realize that this was the first time she had ever used that tool. She took a couple painful chunks of skin out of my foot and put the tool away. Then to finish it all off she washed my feet a third (or maybe fourth) time. Then she moved on to Kate’s feet and the shop owner came to massage my legs. The leg massage was actually really nice (much better than the sort of foot scrub). She did use this wooden tool on the bottom of my foot that really tickled! I hated it. Then, when it got close to the time she was going to use it on my other foot I got all worked up! I knew it was coming and I knew I was going to hate it! I told the other girls that I was so ticklish on my feet and as I was telling them I started laughing and got tears in my eyes! They laughed at me. I made it through okay though.

After Diamond Tooth finished washing Kate’s feet with cold water she (the metal scraper didn’t emerge again) she moved on to Paris’s feet. After Paris’s uncomfortable, cold, rough foot scrub we were done! We got up and the owner said 450 baht. At first we thought she meant EACH and we were freaking out a little bit. But we soon realized that she meant total. So we all paid 150 baht, took our still rough feet and got on our bicycles.

Afterwards we rode to Tesco and did some shopping.  Our feet are still quite rough (mine even worse than before due to the chunks taken out) and I think next time we’ll just stick to going to Kate’s friend.

The Best and the Worst

They are looking for my replacement!  That's crazy and wonderful and sad all at the same time.  They will actually have 2 full time teachers here at the school, since there will be 4 grades and not 3.  One of the teachers thinking about applying emailed me and asked me what the best and worst parts of teaching and living in Thailand have been.  It really made me think and I thought I would share my response.  Enjoy.

Hmmm.... The best and worst parts of living and teaching in Thailand...

Teaching:

Best

- The kids

- There is a good variety of ages and subjects, so it doesn't get boring

- The kids (did I already mention them...?) :)  Seriously though, the kids are so smart and fun.

- The school is really nice and they are great at getting me the supplies and things I need for my lessons.

- It's really laid back.  If my lessons are done and I am getting everything done I am supposed to, then I don't have to be working on my free classes.  Sometimes I head to town before 5:00 because I am caught up.  I can also go out and get lunch if I want (on days that I don't have class right after my lunch break).

- The thai teachers are fun and really helpful and supportive.

Worst

- Teaching (no matter where in the world) takes a lot of work, time and energy.  Just remember that you're a paid, full-time teacher so you won't have nearly as much free time as the volunteers.

- The exams at the end of each quarter can be time consuming.

- At the beginning it can be quite overwhelming getting used to the planning, teaching and kids.  That gets easier with time, but the beginning can be tough.

Living

Best

- No bills!!!!  Your room and food are free so you won't have anything you have to pay for here.  That is so very, very nice.

- Your own room and space.

- The Thai people are the kindest, best people I have met in the world.  

- You will really get a feel for the culture.  I'm sure you know this, but living somewhere and just traveling somewhere provide very different experiences.  Phichit is a small town and you will really get a feel for authentic Thai life.

-  Lot of free time!  There is a lot of down time in the evenings and on the weekends.

- The school director, Tang, is really great.  She's fun and supportive and helpful.

- The fruit!  They reallllllly know how to grow killer pineapples and mangoes here!  They also have lots of fruits that aren't commonly available in the US.

- Low cost of living.  Things here are a lot cheaper than they are in the states.  We (I'm here with my husband) have been able to save some money and that is nice.

- The people you'll meet and the friends you'll meet.  If you're here for a year you will get to know 3 separate groups of volunteers and make some great friends.

- The traveling and adventuring!  We have been to some really fun, beautiful places and made some amazing memories!

Worst

- Food.  I am a big food person.  I miss a lot of things that are hard to get/not available.  This has honestly been the #1 hardest part!  Haha!  We ate the meals that the school cooks made for the first 15 months or so, but now we just take the money and make our own meals.  That has been really nice.  Thai food is fine, but every day, every meal it can get old.  I can't wait to eat Chipotle and Chik-Fil-A when I get home!

- Transportation.  This really fits into both the best and worst categories...  you will have a bike for transportation around town.  They have trains that run to the other cities that are cheap and easy to use.  It's fun to bike around the town and not have to worry about a car/gas/insurance/payments.  I miss having a car of my own.  (bear in mind that I have been here for 2 years.  The first year is wasn't bad, but I'm just ready to be able to get around on something other than a bicycle!  Haha)

- Weather.  It's really hot and humid pretty much always.

- Church.  I don't know if you are LDS or not, but we are.  It takes a lot of time and work to get to church.  The missionaries there are so helpful, but the translation is not always the best.

- I mentioned free time in the 'best' category.  If can be really nice to have a lot of free time, but it can also get boring sometimes.  Once again, this is something I noticed more during the second year than the first year.

- Being far away from family.  I am really close to my family and it's hard to be away from them for so long.  They don't celebrate Christmas here.  I worked the last 2 Christmases (the next teachers won't because it'll fall on the weekend), but that was hard for me.  I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to holiday traditions and I really missed those.  Luckily, technology makes it easy to talk to family and that helps a lot.  I also have my husband here, so I have a build in best friend :)

*   *   *

It has been such a great experience.  I am so glad that Tanner and I decided to come!  We've had our ups and downs while here, but that's how it is everywhere.  We have learned a lot and made a lot of really great memories.  I know that we'll look back on this time with fondness for the rest of our lives. 

Cooking with Kung

Kung (D-day's dad) that Tanner tutors has been talking about taking us to cook cashew chicken at a local restaurant. We finally went! He took us and Tanner and I cooked with the cook there.  Kung translated and visited with us. It was a lot of fun and the chicken was really good! After we cooked we got to eat the cashew chicken. He also ordered some tom yum soup and stir fried cabbage. It was tasty and I got really full!

I love how much Kung loves hanging out with Tanner!

On the way back to the school Kung took us to one of his favorite coffee shops.  He got coffee and Tanner and I got honey lime juice.  The shop was so cute!

We actually went back to the restaurant where we cooked the very next day.  The new group of teachers got here, but Tang, Ake and Ton were up at Central plaza in Phitsanulok with a booth for the school the next day. They left the truck and some money for us so we could take the girls out. We decided to go back to the restaurant and get cashew chicken (that's how much we love it!). We thought we would get one big plate of fried rice, two pots of soup and 5 plates of cashew chicken. Tanner went and ordered. Somewhere during the process there was some miscommunication… We ended up with 5 HUGE platters of fried rice, 4 bowls of soup and 5 plates of cashew chicken! It was way too much food! It was really, really good, just much more than we needed.  With every plate/bowl they brought out we just laughed harder!  Right when we thought we had all the food they would bring out more!