The Beautiful Khon Kaen

This trip was two weekends ago and one I was very excited about! I was finally reuniting with the sisters! Two sisters came here to teach with each other at the same school and they rock. Bailey is just as obsessed with Taylor Swift as me, so obviously we became friends instantly and her sister Jessie is also on board with Tay. We bonded over the week at orientation and I have not seen them since so I was super excited! Mary was also making the long journey to Khon Kaen with me which rocked because she is awesome and I also got to see her the previous weekend at Khao Yai. Our plan was to take the bus there and a plane back so we could get some more time with the sisters because the bus ride was 7 hours. We figured we would get there late Friday anyway so why not just sleep on the bus, and it was the price difference of about $7 for the bus and $70 for the plane ticket so why not save money one way...... IT WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA!!! Maybe if we would have went with a nice bus company, but my god. When we arrive at the bus terminal a bus was leaving around 11 pm, so sweet we will arrive around 6 maybe get a couple hours of sleep on a bed and can start our day. Well it didn't go like that. When we got on the bus we asked to keep our bags with us, which was a pain because they are travelling backpacks but we had snacks and sweaters if we got cold and what not so the annoyed bus driver made people move so we could have the extra leg room to put our bags on the floor at the very back of the bus. Sweet, these seats are nice, we get the whole back row with 5 seats. Well now the bus looks full but people keep coming on.... Now our 5 seater row is fitting 6 and my butt is being invaded buy a seat belt buckle... lovely. Whatever it's fine i'll position it right and fall asleep and these y hours will fly. Oh no wait 8 more people walk on the bus and now the bus driver is pulling out plastic stools with no back to sit on in my extra leg room. So now people are also sitting on my legs. After everyone got settled we left an hour late. I was dozing on and off during the bus ride, but it was hard because I didn't want to fall sleep on the guy beside me and every bump pushed that seat belt buckle a little further and yea lets leave it at that... So it wasn't the best spent $7 of my life but it got us to Khon Kaen by 7:00am. We asked the gentleman beside us wearing an official uniform if he knew what building or Tuk Tuk we should take to get to our friends condo and he told us to follow him got in the back of a pick up truck with us and then rode with us to our stop and paid our fee. Soooo nice. I will stop saying it until they prove me wrong, but Thai people are the nicest I have ever met. Once we got to the condo and had our hello's, our day started right away! Bailey and Jessie's coordinator was taking us at 8:00am to go to Cobra Village! So we grabbed some coffee and breakfast at the 7eleven and jumped in the car. Once we got to the village we walked around before the show started. There were cages everywhere with so many different types and sizes and lizards. The whole time I kept thinking about how much my mom and grandma would be hating their life if they were here lol. When the show started they had a women who would dance with a python around her neck, then some guys who would fight the cobras, and even some young children maybe 9 years old, who would fight and dodge smaller snakes. It was crazy, then we got a chance to hold the python.... So many thoughts running through my head, like yes do it Melissa when will you ever get a chance to do something like this again.... wait Melissa you hate snakes don't do it are you crazy... I don't think my mom will ever hug me again knowing there was a snake around my neck lol. In the end I did it and the snake actually felt so cool! I was scared and had my picture taken and told them to take it off right after but glad I did it. After that we stopped at this one temple and got our fortunes told. You would take a container of sticks and shake it until one fell out. this stick would have a number and then you would go to a box with that number and grab a paper from that box. If you did not like your fortune you can get rid of it by placing it in one of the elephant statues at the temple, but if you liked it then you have to hold on to it. I loved them. It really felt meant for me and spoke to how my life is playing out right now. I will post a picture on my blog of it, but it really spoke to me and made me feel secure in the decisions I have made in my life thus far. Then we stopped at the Khon Kaen University because Jick (Coordiantor) has her cow living there. Yes her cow. She had him as a pet but he got to big so now the University keeps him at the farm. He was huge!!!!!! And also super cute. We had lunch at the University which was delicious and then off to our massages we went! This would be my first Thai massage and I was super excited. Well it was awesome and my body felt great after but man do they get into your muscles. I had bruises all over my thighs and lower back lol but I felt like I could take on the world after! We went back and showered and got ready for the evening. We took a Tuk Tuk to the lake and sat and watched the sunset, it was stunning. It was a moment that truly made me grateful for everything and everyone in my life. Then we went for dinner and I got some Pad Thai. It was yummy!!!! It is so much better here, I will never eat Thai food back home again because it will suck. We got our pre-game on at their room and played Canadian cards against humanity. The best thing I brought lol they Americans think it is so funny and that all the cards are super Canadian when I still don't see it. They didn't even know what Tim Hortons was..... I've been teaching them a lot lol. Then we hit the town. The area that they live in is filled with foreigners which was nice for a change to talk to multiple people that speak English! I met a guy too that lives in Burlington and went to school at Guelph! So that was cool to talk about home home :) We went to a pub first then a dance bar. It was all so fun and all the Thai people there took so many pictures with us. It was a fun night! The next morning was rough, but I got a nice breakfast with bacon finally!! Ahhhh it was the best ever. It also came with pancakes, eggs, toast, sausage and orange juice. It was called the American breakfast lol. Then to the Airport we went. The plane ride was well worth the money because it was only 40 min and I was so much more comfortable! This was I got home by a reasonable time to go to bed and have another eventful week at school! Can't wait to go back and visit again!

Trip to Khao Yai National Park!

This past weekend I finally had the chance to meet up with some of my friends from the CIEE program! We planned our trip to Khao Yai National Park which is located near the city of Pak Chong. My trip started after school on Friday, and I had to rush home to quickly finish packing and hurry to the BTS station (Sky Train). I had never been on the BTS yet so I was super nervous and was really hoping I had gotten my locations of when to get off correct. The cab ride took longer than expected and what should have been a 10 min cab ride, took about 45 min. Bangkok traffic is insane!!! I was getting nervous because I had read online that the last bus to Pak Chong was at 7:00pm and it was now 5:30pm. Once I got my ticket for the BTS I jumped on a subway looking car with hundreds of people. I think it was air conditioned but I couldn't feel it because there was so many hot, sweaty people all up in my business. Well the sky train wasn't moving. A message kept repeating, "Sorry for the delay increase traffic has caused delay". So I stood like a sardine in this thing for 20 min before it started to move. After that things looked good! I was almost at my stop to get off and according to my map, the next bus station I needed to get on was right at the same station. Well I was wrong.... It was now 6:45pm and I was standing on a busy street with no idea where I was going. I started to talk to a man in uniform because I assume he could maybe speak English, well he didn't. A nice lady heard my concern and told me that I had to get on a cit bus to get to the next bus station. She told me what bus number and off I went. The city buses here are different. All open windows, crammed full of people and there is someone who works on the bus who walks around and collects your toll. So I was concerned I didn't have correct change, but then no one came around.. cool a free ride :) I was on the bus for a long time and began panicking. It was now 7:05pm and in my mind I missed my bus and now had no idea where I was going. I tried talking to the people around me and again, no one knew what I was trying to ask. I wanted to cry so bad, even with a bus full of Thai people. I was already the odd man out why not add some more attention to myself. The bus stopped and most people got off. It looked as if we were in the middle of nowhere, when a lady from the front of the bus grabbed my arm and said follow me. She spoke broken English but it was the best I had heard all day. She asked where my final destination was helped me get to the right place. We had some conversation on our walk and it turned out she was a teacher too! She kept looking at her watch, which made me think she was going to miss her next bus so when I thought I could find my own way I told her I was okay, but nope.. she wanted to make sure I got on my bus. She took me to the counter, helped me get my ticket and walked me all the way to my greyhound looking bus. The people here are so nice, I have never been more grateful. Once I got on my bus I felt a lot better. I would just ride the bus until we got to Pak Chong... well wrong again. The bus kept making stops along the way and I had no idea when I needed to get off! I was okay, I had GPS in my phone and could figure out a general time to get off... nope my phone is at 10%. Well, Mai pen rai. I'll get somewhere. The people on the bus kept to themselves. I had a younger guy sitting next to me and he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder, until his friend across the aisle slapped him awake. It was funny, we both laughed. When I had thought I was getting close I turned my phone back on to make sure this is the right city, and then the bus attendant came and told me this was my stop, again super nice people. He directed me to the location of the hotel I wanted to stay in and it took me about a 7 min walk. It was now 1:30 am. Once I got to my hotel, it seemed a bit sketchy but I just wanted a shower and a bed. The bed was harder than the floor but I was tired so I passed out quickly. In the morning I finally met up with Becky and Mary! It felt so nice to see them!! We had our complementary breakfast, which was actually good, and then our shuttle bus came to pick us up and take us to our guesthouse. When we got there they directed us to a room to leave our bags for the day as we went trekking in the park because we didn't have a room yet. Pretty sure this room didn't eve have doors and it was meters from the street, but I have had no reason to doubt Thailand yet, so I left my bag of belongings and hoped for the best. There was a group of about 40 people who were all on the guided tour. We were in the back of a truck with some other ladies who were in Thailand working at an Elephant camp. They were super nice and two were Canadians! They made us laugh all day long! We picked the right truck to get on! When we got to the National Park we were told we could see elephants, but unfortunately we did not. However, we did get to stop and get out of the truck to see monkeys, snakes and beautiful waterfalls! I would say in total we hiked about 10km. I counted the stairs to the largest waterfall and it was 200 steps down, and then back up. I have never sweat more in my life. I have avoided all stairs since. The hike was okay, not too intense and we got some breaks to check out the falls and explore. We got so close to some of the falls and got amazing pictures! It was nice too because it wasn't too crowded and we separated into out truck groups so we only had 8 of us and our guide Charlie! He was so knowledgable about the area and the animals it was interesting to listen to him talk about all of it! We had to wear leech socks during our hike because they like the wet season and we just finished the rainy season here. We thought it was a joke and we wouldn't see any.... well I saw them alright! At first I was expecting huge blood sucking looking leeches, but these ones looked like inch worms and were soooo tiny! That didn't stop them from biting. A girl in my group, Jen, got on the truck and didn't even notice we was bleeding from a bite! It was small but would not stop bleeding. Then we all panicked and were checking our clothes the whole ride home! We found a couple, but no one else was harmed, except some ear drums when one was found close to my leg :) I got scared lol That night we had dinner at the place where we stayed and it was the best pad thai I have ever eaten in my life, I almost ordered a second helping after my first bite! We went to bed pretty early because we were so tired from all the hiking. In the morning we had breakfast, eggs and toast and coffee! I love the coffee here, its so strong and when you get it iced, it's nice and sweet! We took a train home which was really cheap (about a dollar) for a 5 hour ride. People walk up and down the aisles selling pop in a bag and fruit, and so much more! It was cool, but this one Thai guy would not leave us alone and kept wanting to take pictures with me and then asked for my number. I told him I didn't know it.. which is half true lol It was an amazing weekend away and I got to see some of the beautiful sites in Thailand. I can't wait till next weekend for my next adventure!

My School!

I have never experienced a school like Dararat Kindergarten. My day starts around 7:45 am when I arrive at the school. Some kids and most teachers area already there. The school is smaller than others, and is spilt up into classrooms according to age. There is a nursery class with children from the age of 1-2. I only spend 30 minutes with the 2 year olds (only about 6 kids), usually just singing songs or teaching them simple words such as numbers or colours. K-1 is a class of about 20, and they are all around the age of 3. I spend 45 minutes in this class. Again we sing some songs and I will do a worksheet with them. The worksheet usually has them tracing letters or numbers, and colouring after! Then I move to K-2 and they are 4 years old. I spend an hour with them usually starting the class with songs. They love to sing 'The Wheels on the Bus', 'ABC', and 'Head,Shoulders, Knees, and Toes'.  They also have their own stupid songs they love to sing.... sorry did I say stupid I mean lovely songs!!! (I'm still adjusting to the young kids :) hopefully I will love to sing kids songs by the end of the year, but right now it drives me a little crazy lol). I also do a worksheet with the K-2's and end with a story. The class only has 4 English books and I'm already sick of them so I will probably have to buy some in the near future! Then they eat lunch! The school feds the students breakfast, lunch and a few of them dinner. The meals all usually consist of rice and either eggs or mystery meat. Then is it free time for the kids to play with the blocks or toys in their classroom. Each teacher eats lunch in their room to watch the kids while they play. I go and sit in the one air conditioned room with the K-1 teacher and watch the kids as they nap (only the nursery and K-1 kids nap). The one teacher A (yes that is her name) goes out everyday and gets us lunch. It's always a mystery to me what I am eating. I always get rice, and then some sort of soup or chicken on top of the rice. Sometimes we have a buffet style lunch where everyone just uses their spoons to eat out of the same dish. Only a couple of times I have tried something and wanted to instantly throw up, but for the most part it is great! Today I had Thai style fried chicken and rice. It was my favourite thing so far, but they gave it to me in a bag and I had to eat it with my fingers. They eat with their fingers a lot. Or with a spoon. I rarely get a fork, and I never get a knife. I don't think I have seen a knife while I've been here. Then I go to the K-3 class and these are my oldest (5 years old) and my naughtiest. This class is only about 12 kids, but a total of 9 boys that love to wrestle and say the word 'poop'. I laughed the first time, but after the 100th time I cant take it anymore. I tried to teach them the clapping method (when I clap a pattern, they clap it after me and then be quiet), except that all just started clapping and wouldn't stop lol I had a good laugh and then started to say, "thank-you, thank-you" and did a curtsy. They laughed and understood that, but I never clapped again. With this class I can have more conversation because they understand the most English (even more than the teachers). I have started teaching them new songs and tomorrow we will make props and then perform the song to the teacher. The schools theme this week is seasons, so I have taught them 'Oh Mr. Sun', and  'Rain, Rain Go Away'. Then at around 2:30 they get free time and the toys come out again until 4:30. Parents start to pick up the kids around 3:00pm. During the free time some of their favourite games to play include making guns out of blocks and shoot Teacher Melissa (yes this is allowed, and would never be okay in a school back home), they also love pretend cooking me food and watching me eat it. My favourite is fried eggs with ice cream on top (they have pretend food toys), and it is yummy every time. As hard as it is adjusting to the new age of kids, and the language barrier they are so cute. Hearing them say, "Good morning Teacher Melissa" puts an instant smile on my face, and even though they have snotty noses and don't cover their mouth when they cough, their hugs are worth it.

Hua Hin Pictures :)

My First Weekend Getaway in Hua Hin!

The weekend started with 7 other teachers and myself getting into a van that was rented for the weekend. I thought Dao was coming with us, that was initially why I said yes because I knew she could speak English. Dao was no where in sight. As the van began to drive away from the school I was having thoughts of regret because none of the teachers could speak much English. The teachers were all having the best time, telling jokes (I think..), laughing, and taking pictures with each other and so many selfies. Occasionally one would yell teacher take a picture with me and they would all laugh. I felt like such an outsider, but I was determined to make the most of the weekend and try to connect with the teachers that I will be seeing 5 days a week for the rest of the year. Before we left they told us the drive should take around 3 hours. In Thailand when you are told 3 hours, you should expect 5 or more hours to get there. After the first hour we stopped at a 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven's are the Tim Hortons of Thailand, they are everywhere! I didn't know what we were stopping for, so I got out with everyone else. They grabbed breakfast.. I think. Most just grabbed a package of deli meatish type things... again I don't know. They kept telling me to grab something, but I had already eaten and it was still only 8:30 am. Then next we stopped at a Temple. Thank goodness I was wearing longer pants and a t-shirt because it is disrespectful to enter a temple if your knees or shoulders are showing. It was beautiful and I sat and observed them. One hour later we stopped again. Washroom break! Which was nice because I had to go so bad, but didn't know the procedures of washroom breaks on a road trip lol. Then 30 minutes we stopped again. I never knew when we were stopping, why we were stopping I always just got out and observed what everyone else was doing. This stop was for lunch and we went to a hole in the wall type restaurant. The menu was on the wall in big lettering in Thai. One of the Thai teachers, in broken English asked if I was hungry and at this point I was starving, so I said yes. I think she then asked me in Thai what I wanted. I said whatever your having is fine. I don't think anyone knew what I said. She then asked pork or beef. I shrugged and said pork. When the lady came to take our order she spoke some more English and asked pork or beef and then asked spicy or not (which is nice because I can handle spice... but the food here is SPICY!) I asked for a little spice. Not to sure what I just ordered, but hoped for the best. When it came out it was soup with noodles and pork. They have spoons and chop sticks on the table. The spoon is okay for the broth but it can't pick up the long skinny noodles and everyone else is using the chopsticks, so again I follow what everyone is doing. Now I thought my chopstick skills were good, I mean I can handle sushi with chopsticks like a pro... not so much with thin noodles. I couldn't do it and quickly became embarrassed. They noticed and try to help me, but I still couldn't get the hang of it. Finally, they yelled to the lady that took our order and she came over with a fork. I guess they keep a hidden supply of them for white people :) Then back on the bus we went. I instantly took some Imodium just incase, because I didn't know the next time we would have a bathroom break and I didn't want any problems. We drove for another 2 hours and kept taking U-turns and going up and down streets, I assumed we were lost. We stopped again and it looked like a bathroom break but everyone was grabbing their bags. Om told me swimming, so I assumed everyone was putting on their bathing suits and we were going to the beach. I grabbed my bathing suit (a bikini) and Om started saying, "no no no no". She then said, "Fine" as she touched my leggings and shirt I was wearing and motioned for me to get back in the van, so I did. Everyone got back in and it looked like they had just changed out of their jeans into shorts, so I thought maybe they were just getting hot. Well we did arrive at a beach and I was a little confused, but as we walked down the beach everyone was covered up. Shorts or pants were worn by everyone and t-shirts. I was the most scandalous in my tank top. Then some of the girls went running into the water. The water was so warm and everyone was splashing around. It was a lot of fun. Then like typical girls we took jumping pics in the water. It was the perfect afternoon. Not all beaches are like the one we visited, but it seemed to be in a protected area, so maybe it was in an area of significance, but the signs were in Thai and I did not know exactly the name of the beach we were on. Then we finally went to our pool villa. It was a cute little resort with a bigger pool in the main area, then each villa had its own small pool. It looked like a place that people rent out for a couple months at a time, because it came with a kitchen and BBQ, cooking supplies and such. There were only two rooms and two beds for the 8 of us. They shuffled me into a room with the two younger teachers who are also 23. We all went swimming in our little pool, showered and then went to the market. This market was huge and they bought way too much food to cook when we got back but I was excited to try it all! A lot of seafood which excited me, but if I didn't like seafood, then I would have been in trouble. They also stopped and got beer and whiskey for the night. This was the only time they had asked me for money during the whole trip. I gave them the equivalent of $10 in baht and they came back with two 26ers of whiskey and a whole bunch of beer. When we got back they started to cook and made some drinks. They drink their whiskey with a splash of coke and the rest soda water. It was really good. The beer Leo tasted like the standard Bud. We ate our fest on the floor crossed legged. My butt was numb and my ankles felt bruised, but this is how they sat all night. I couldn't believe how fast and much they drank! I was taking it easy because I wanted to be okay for the van ride home, but even if my drink got half way done and I put it down they would be topping it up. So I started holding on to my drink. We got into the music and the other 23 year old teacher got wasted and was singing Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber with me.  It was so much fun! She then got to drunk and the others put her to bed because she was falling over and started to cry. I thought it would be a good time to sleep too. I went up to the roof and they were all howling at the moon lol (it was Halloween and they were being werewolves from what I took from the conversation. I snuck down around 2 am to sleep. At 5 am I woken up to go swimming. I don't think the 5  of them went to bed or stopped drinking. And they continued to drink until 11 am when we had to get back on the van. They finished all the beer and both bottles of whiskey. I was impressed. The drive home was the same as the drive there. Took forever and the traffic was horrible so I took some gravel to help me sleep. We had to stop for more bathroom breaks for the few that were probably still drunk. We then stopped at at this place that seemed to be a heritage village that showed Thailand through the ages. It was cute with little shops and we ate lunch here. There was old telephones and liquor bottles. We walked around for a bit then continued our ride home. I don't think I have ever spent a weekend in so much silence, because I would just listen to their conversations that I didn't understand but laughed along. Even with the language barrier we sang, danced, drank, and ate amazing food. We were a bunch of girls away for the weekend who just wanted to have fun. And we did. They made me feel so welcomed and incorporated me in everything, even if I had no idea what was going on. They made me feel like family.

First Week on my Own!

Once I got myself all settled and unpacked in my apartment, I had a couple days to relax before starting at school. Dao told me to come in on Thursday to help set up decorations for the Halloween party on Friday! I love Halloween so this made me very excited! The days leading up to the Halloween party were mostly spent in my apartment. I had enough food from my market run with Dao to last me a couple days and honestly I was scared. I have never lived in a busy city before, especially where they don't speak English and I was nervous about getting lost, not being able to communicate with people and I was nervous about doing something offensive or wearing something that was too revealing. When the day came that I decided to explore my new home I wore a skirt to the ground and a high necked t-shirt. I don't think I have ever sweat more in my life. I was glad I did dress like this though and did not wear shorts. My city is just outside of Bangkok and known as a residential location, but the roads are just as busy as Toronto. I did not see any other foreigners and everyone was wearing longer pants or skirts and shirts that were more reserved. I guess I will keep my shorts for travelling, the beach and my apartment. At orientation we were told that teachers are well respected here and we should always be dressed appropriately. I don't mind covering up, I'm just glad I played it safe and observed what everyone else was wearing first. My first outing alone wasn't as scary as I thought... people were smiling at me, the smells of street food filled the air, however I still did manage to get lost. After passing my street a couple times (all the street names are the same with just different numbers) I finally noticed something that looked familiar and ran home :) Thursday came and I was ready to go help set up some decorations. I googled the school address and thought it was on my street because it had the same name... but again that was not the case and I checked the number and thought I knew the area it was in from my brief visit when Dao drove me there on Monday. Of course I went down the wrong street got lost again.... so I called Dao and asked her how to get there with her response being oh sorry I got caught up with some new parents wanting to register their kid into the kindergarten program. We were also told at orientation that people in Thailand do not communicate well. The school might be having a holiday and you won't find out until that day when you get to school. Again their life motto, "Mai pen rai" (no worries). So I shrugged it off and went back to my apartment. The next day was the Halloween party and I was told to wear all black! I got a witch hate when I arrived at the school which made me excited because I had not found anything to wear. The decorations looked amazing and I could not have helped make it look as good as it did! When the kids began to arrive I got butterflies because I have never worked with kids so young before. They are exactly what I expected... full of energy running around screaming, some tears and obviously fighting over the best toys. It was a nice first day to have and adjust to my new school. I have never been more worn out though!!! Kindergarten is going to be tough, but I can already tell very rewarding. At the end of the day I was ready for bed and possibly sleeping throughout the whole weekend, but then Dao invited me on a weekend getaway they had set up for the teachers because they had an extra spot. My body ached, my head was pounding but that was an opportunity I could not pass up on!!! We planned to meet at 7 the next morning, so home to bed I went.

Some Photos!