A Very Suphan Christmas!

Well Christmas has come and gone already! Christmas morning Matt and I opened some presents and headed off to work in our very decorated santa hats, thanks to Mom! Most of the Thai people we passed on our walk to school did a small smile and giggle as they went by. Since the M4, M5 and M6 students were on a field trip, I luckily enough did not have any classes to teach all day.

For lunch, all the Thai teachers put together a little christmas luncheon complete with french fries, and thai food. For the rest of the afternoon all the foreign teachers went into the library to use the big screen TV and watch Tommy Boy.

After school, Matt and I got back to the house and got ready for the Christmas dinner at the Thai/Farang Restaurant close by. The owner is from Holland and he made is a free (!) dinner with mashed potatoes and thai meatballs. There were about 25 of us foreign teachers from other provinces of Suphanburi there to celebrate. After dinner, we all headed up Nikki's room in the apartments and participated in White Elephant. We all bought gifts, 100B worth, and came out with some good stuff. I received, after stealing it from Ian, a wonderful toilet seat that says "Take Your Time" on it. I was very pleased. Overall, a very Thai christmas!

Christmas is comingg..

Friday is christmas..

... and I have presents to open this year!! wahoo!

School Camping Part II

Well last year around this time, I went camping with the 3s, 4s and 5s to Chanthaburi down south. So it was nice to have a change of scenery for this year with the 4s, 5s and 6s. We headed East of Suphanburi to Khao Yai National Park. Sam, SiSi, and I left early on Friday morning, while the other teacher had to work (ha ha) and teach the 1s, 2s, and 3s. We arrived at Khao Yai around noon and put our things away in our tents. We ate some lunch (out of the back of a pick up truck) and then started on a 6k hike through the woods.

our lunch out of the pick up

SiSi and I during our hike

During our hike we saw some elephant footprints, crocodiles, and lots of bamboo. At the end of our hike we came upon a waterfall where we met up with the other teachers: Matt, Brett, Ian, Tessa, Ally, Alex and his girlfriend who was visiting Anna. We headed back to the campsite and relaxed before dinner. After we finished dinner, we all got ready for spotlighting at night! All the teachers piled into one pick up truck and all the students split up into other trucks. There was one Thai boy in the front of the pickup with a giant spotlight and we went looking for animals. We saw lots of deer (unexciting) and then we got to see 2 porcupines, which was very cool.

The next day we were woken up at 6am to go bird watching. Yes, bird watching.. at 6 in the morning. You can imagine how thrilled we all were. We walked along the paved roads with students for almost 2 hours then made it back to camp. Saw nothing interesting. Ate some breakfast and packed up to head off!

On the way home from camp we made some pit-stops. First, Chokchai Farms, where apparently they have the best ice cream and dairy products. Which is true because the ice cream was delicious. Stop #2: waterfall, where we ate lunch and went swimming which was very fun. After a few hours of swimming we hopped back in the vans and headed back to Suphanburi! It was a fun time to spend with the students and see them outside of the classroom. And Friday is Christmas!! Happy Holidays!

Updates.

So I've been a bit behind on catching this blog up. Since I am home from school, sick with strep throat, I figured this would be the best time for me to get all up-to-date. When I last left you, I was trekking through the jungles of Laos and spending time in Chiang Mai before semester II started at school. Well school has obviously started since it is almost Christmas time. So here are some updates:

1. New Teachers - They always seem to be coming and going! We have many new teachers in our school. Some new teachers from CIEE (the same program I came through) are Nicki, Maddy, Tessa, Ally, and Tash. We also just got another one from Tasmania for three months, Alex.

2. Weekend Travels:

Nov 1 - Nov 3 : I went to Laos again, to get a new Visa. Pain in the butt, although I got to miss some days of school since the embassy is only open on the weekdays.

Nov 13 - Nov 15 : School Exhibition, I learned some paper folding origami stuff and a group of us went to the tower we have in town that has a water park with 3 slides.

Nov 18 - nov 22 : Had a long weekend so sam, matt, tessa, susan and i went to Koh Chang for some fun in the sun. Awesome sunset photos here.

Nov 28 - Nov 29 : School's 80th Birthday, had a big to do at school in the evening. Free dinner and whiskey. On Sunday went to the Lopburi Monkey Festival, which I had already been to = already blogged about = read about in my archives.

Matt and I at the School's 80th Birthday

Dec 5 - Dec 6 : King's Birthday Weekend. Went into Bangkok to see my Thai friend Gift.

The crowd in Bangkok for the King

Dec 12 - Dec 13 : Bangkok Christmas shopping!

Vacation In-between Semesters

I know, I know, it's been a while and there is much to catch up on, so I'll get right to it. Matt and I had a two-week break at the beginning of October between semesters. We planned our trip to Chiang Mai and Laos for this break. Our tentative plan was Chiang Mai for one night, head to our 3-day Laos trip for the Gibbon Experience, and spend the rest of our vacay in Chiang Mai with a few days in Pai. Friday night we took an 10pm overnight sleeper train from Bangkok up north to Chiang Mai. Sleeper trains are the way to travel long distances, most definitely. Although it takes a bit more time than a bus, it was worth it. We arrived in Chiang Mai around 2pm, found a guesthouse, ate some dinner and booked a van for our all day drive to the Laos border. Sunday we got picked up in the morning and made it an hour before the border closed at 6pm. Once we got our paper worked checked and visa finished we headed to the Gibbon Experience headquarters to check-in.

Some background info: I heard about the Gibbon Experience through the program I came to teach through. They mentioned it during orientation and I had it set in my mind that I was going to do it before I left Southeast Asia. A few friends had done it as well during our summer vacation in March and April. They all raved about it. The Gibbon Experience is located in the north of Laos in a village called Ban The. The gist of it is that you spend 3 days and 2 nights living in treehouses and zip lining from tree to tree. You are on the lookout for Gibbons although it is very rare to actually see one. You can choose the Classic Experience, which is more zipping than hiking or the Waterfall Experience, which is more hiking, less zipping, but you get to swim in a waterfall and do more of the different zip courses. Matt and I both decided on the Waterfall Experience. This would come back to haunt us.

The Start of our Gibbon Experience:

Monday - Oct 12

We woke up, ate some breakfast and waited for our video introduction at the Gibbon office at 8am. We met the other 4 people in our group. We left for the jungle in a pick up truck and headed off. It was about an hour and a half ride to the village where we started our hike. The last half hour of the drive was across a river and through muddy, uneven roads to this village. When we arrived we met our two guides: Tcha-ya and Lu. They were both young guys who did this whole trek in flipflops! Before we started heading into the jungle, the other group from 3days before us were coming out of the jungle. Only to warn us about the many leeches we were about to encounter. Awesome.

It was about an hour hike to our first treehouse. The hike was brutal uphill climbs and by the end it was raining on us cause the ground to be muddy and slippery. And of course the leeches.. all over our shoes, inside our socks, making us bleed. Apparently these tricky little leeches give you anesthesia when they bite you so you don't know when you are being bitten. So we arrived at treehouse #6 wet and tired. We did some ziplining and once in the house Matt and I were dead tired. We showered and relaxed in the treehouse for the rest of the night. The guides brought us some delicious Loas food for dinner and then bed time.

A Leech on my shoe

Tuesday - Oct 13

The day I thought I was going to die. We woke up at 6:30am to our guides zipping into our treehouse with fruit and coffee. The guides told us we had an optional morning hike to look for animals. Knowing that we had a long hike ahead of us that day, Matt and I decided to stay behind and do some zip lining around the treehouse instead. When the other came back from their hike we packed our stuff and headed off for the next treehouse we were going to stay in. Part I of the hike was easy.. 30 mins to a waterfall. Not bad, I thought, easier than yesterday. The waterfall was amazing and felt so good. We ate some food after swimming and then headed off again. This hike, not so easy. This 2 hour brutal uphill hike was not for me. I was tired, I thought my legs were going to fall off and those damn leeches were making me feet uncontrollably bleed. Matt thankfully offered to trade backpacks with me to lighten my load. When we finally arrived at treehouse #5 all I wanted was my leechy sneakers off and to sit down. The rain for the second day in a row wasn't helping either. It got to the point where it was raining so hard we had to stay in the treehouse for the rest of the night. This treehouse was my favorite. It was 3 floors and had amazing views. Our amazing group stayed up all night playing cards, eating delicious food and talking.

Wednesday - Oct 14

The last day. Everyone woke up early to get some extra zipping in. After an hour zipping we packed our stuff and said goodbye to the treehouse. On the way back to the village where we started we made some pitstops at other treehouses to do some zipping which was awesome. When we reached the village we were muddy, bloody, and a bittersweet end to our journey. At least I thought it was the end of our journey. We all hoped into the pick up and headed off on the hour and a half ride back to the town when clouds started to move in. And then came the downpour. On muddy, uneven roads with holes all over our awesome pick up truck got stuck 3 times in the mud. All of us would have to get out of the truck, stand in the mud, and try and help. The Loas way of fixing truck that are stuck in the mud: go into the woods with a machete, chop down a part of a tree and lodge it under the truck to lift it out of the hole while someone else shoves a giant rock under the tire. Eventually, we made it to the paved roads and stopped for lunch. By the time we got back to the town, Matt and I just wanted to get clean and get a place to sleep.

The muddy, uneven road we drove on

Overall, an unforgettable experience. We met some amazing people who have traveled to some amazing places and hopefully we will get to see them again. Although the hiking was rigorous, we had a good time and enjoyed being able to sleep in treehouses and zip line through jungles. And spent the rest of our vacation in beautiful Chiang Mai. There are more pictures/videos of our trip on my photo website. Check them out!

Smells like teen spirit.

Well talk about hard work paying off. This thursday and friday we have no classes for the Sport Carnival. The students in the whole school use the last period before the end of the day and after school to practice for this event. The students are divided into 6 house colors: red, yellow, blue, pink, green and purple. The M6 students organize pretty much everything. Each color has a dance, music, theme which are all created by the students. The whole sports carnival was a 2-day event. The beginning of the day started with a dance by each color then sports competitions. They had volleyball, basketball, soccer, bocce ball, badminton and many more.

Matt and I were on the yellow team. And luckily the yellow team won for best dance! It was a lot of fun and even better because we had two days off from sschool! Pictures are on my website and they are pretty exciting to see!

swine flu mask proliferation!

Swine flu. Beware! It's quite a feat to try to enunciate english words through a bright green cloth over your mouth strapped to your face. Each classroom in the EP program has been given boxes of masks with the regulation that EVERY student MUST wear their mask in the classroom otherwise the air conditioner will be turned off. Not only do the students have to wear these masks, that are now colorfully decorated and drawn on, but the teachers also must wear these masks. I never did think that one day I would have my own personal surgical mask without an MD degree. Interesting.

But it is quite a culture shock to walk into a classroom where you can only see the eyes of each students peering out at you behind a green or white mask. Apparently the flu has become increasingly prevalent in the central Thailand area. But lucky for me I'm healthy as a horse and plan to keep it that way! I'll try and get some pictures of my classes soon to post!