March & April

School finished after finals on March 13th, so for the rest of March, I spend most of my time in Suphanburi relaxing and saving money, hence the missing blog entries. I felt I'd spare you from the boring details of the small town of Suphanburi. Most of the people from CIEE took backpacking trips before heading home, which will also be my plan for next March-May. Summer school started up April 1st and my last day is today! I'll be missing the last two days of school to head home to the states! I am definitely looking forward to seeing all of my friends and family and enjoying some American food! Yum. 

The only exciting thing that happened for April was the week of April 12-18, which was Protests + Song kran + My 23rd Birthday! On the 11th (Saturday) I headed into Bangkok to meet up with Heather, Glyn and Glyn's friend Alphabet (who went to VMI with Glyn, but now works at the Ministry of Defense in Thailand.. and yes, he's Thai). It was so nice to have someone who has a car in Bangkok and knows the area really well! He took us out to dinner Saturday night right on the river, it was very beautiful.

Sunday, Alphabet was a great host and took us to a wax museum in the morning and in the afternoon Heather and I were planning to get some shopping done. On our way to the shopping area, we were suddenly stuck in traffic, then all the pieces started to come together as to why we were in traffic. Big buses filled with army men in uniform + pedestrians coming out of back streets pulling red shirts over their heads + stopped cars. When we realized protests were starting  all of the cars starting turning around and when we finally got out Alphabet wanted to take us to another part of Bangkok. On our way, we saw army tanks rolling around the streets and protestors coming out of the woodworks. Because Alphabet worked for the government and army he was getting up to date information calls that there was a state of emergency declared, but he told us as long as he doesn't get called in, we won't really have to worry if we avoid it. And he didn't get called in. After shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready to celebrate my Birthday! Alphabet took us out to dinner then to a hookah bar on a rooftop! It was a great 23rd birthday.

Monday was the start of SongKran festival. It's THE biggest festival in Thailand and very popular. It lasts for 3 days and everything is closed. Everyone is outside throwing water and powder on ANYONE they want. People are selling water guns, bottles of water, powder... and people have blocks of ice sitting in water to throw ice cold water at people. If you are in a tuk-tuk (an open taxi) you are fare game. While Heather and I were walking around our hotel, little children were chasing us down the streets and shooting us with water guns. Monday, the protests were getting worse and Heather was flying out that night so I decided it would be best to head back home. 

Tuesday, in Suphanburi, I went out with some of the village kids and Mr. Wat to enjoy Song Kran. We hopped in the back of a pick-up truck with garbage bins filled with water and buckets.  There was about 10 of us in the back while we drove around the streets of Suphan throwing water at anyone we could. The streets are lined with people standing on the sidewalks throwing water and pick-up after pick-up slowly driving down the streets. 

I was quite the target as I was probably the only farang participating. You would hear "Farang! Farang!" Then all of a sudden 5 kids jump on the back of the truck and start wiping my face with wet powder (like wet clay kind of) and dumping cold water on me. I had a great time though! Wednesday the festival was planned to end, but since the protests had caused a lot of things to be cancelled the government declared extended holiday until Friday. So I had the whole week off from school!

I will post pictures soon!

the month of goodbyes.

February has been filled with goodbye ceremonies, goodbye dinners, and cleaning out desks and houses. Matti was the first of us to leave. He got a job back in Finland and started shortly after he ended here. We had Matti's goodbye ceremony, then later that night had the goodbye dinner for Matti, Marty, Jen and Belinda. The next week was Marty, Jen and Belinda's goodbye ceremony and they left that weekend. Last Friday we had Catie, Kati and Lijuan's goodbye ceremony and last night we had their goodbye dinner. It's only Glendon, Brett and me left as the only fa-rangs (foreigners). Glendon will be leaving after summer school and then Brett and I will be anxiously waiting for the new arrivals. 

Matti's goodbye ceremony was the first introduction of what goes down in this emotional ceremony. All the students in the EP program gather in one of the empty rec rooms. The person or people leaving sit in front of everyone at a table to their hands folded together hanging off the table. Under their hands is a silver bucket type thing filled with flowers. First, Chaht makes a speech in Thai to the students about you then Tuke calls up a representative from each class. That student comes to the front and says some nice things in English about you and what you've done for them. Some classes sing songs, or read things to you or give you drawings. Then you say a few words about your experience and thank yous and whatnot. After, one by one the faculty first, lines up and pours water over your hands and says some meaningful words to you, the students follow by grade.

The goodbye dinners are just for the faculty to say a last goodbye and eat over some delicious food.  Chaht makes a speech, you make a speech and we all have a good time. The dinners seem to get smaller and smaller. Sad.

Pattaya & Valentine's Day

I've been a bit behind so I'll catch you up on my month of February. Catie, Heather and I spent the first full weekend in Pattaya. Apparently one of the most popular beach spots for tourists. There are lots of Swedish, Russian, and Finish people. Most of the Thai's who work there can speak at least one of those languages to be able to sell to those tourists. The beach was alright, but there was always something happening in town. Definitely a big nightlife spot we got to eat at a Mexican restaurant which was a nice change of pace. We stayed at a really cute hostel with a restaurant below and made friends with the waiters there. They were really nice. It was good to be able to lay on a beach again though!

The next weekend was Valentine's Day. Heather, Brittany, Catie and I decided that we would go into Bangkok and finally see the Sky Bar. It's a rooftop bar with an amazing view of Bangkok at night. Although the view is amazing it comes with a price. Drinks are very expensive so we only stayed for two but it was worth it!

yahtzee!

Well it certainly has been a while. King Bhumibol never looked so good on paper as much as he did in my wallet. Pay Day! Finally! Time for some traveling. This weekend, Heather and Brittany made their way on over to Suphanburi. Catie and I did some cleaning for their arrival and was so excited when they got here! We ate some delicious chicken with cashews and drank some singhas for dinner and tried to get to bed early for our site seeing adventures on Saturday. Saturday morning, bright and early 8.30am we met Marty, Belinda and Jen at school and hopped in our rented van and started off the Wat Muang (Biggest Sitting Buddha). Marty, Belinda, Catie and I have been there before but it is surely a site you can see more than once!

After the Buddha, we headed off to the Zoo & Aquarium, which was definitely the best part of the day! Only 20B (.57) entrance fee and we got to see some amazing things. Meerkats, tigers, orangutans and lots more. But the best part of the day was we paid another 20B to feed and hang out with baby Tigers! It was like playing with large cats. Once the lady handed me the bottle, one tiger started drinking and the other was trying to knock it out of the other tigers mouth and started whining. They would wrap their paws around the bottle and jump on our laps. One started biting Marty's shoe and my bag. It was really amazing.

We also got to hang out with an Orangutan named Jumbo. He was the friendliest and cutest orangutan I've ever seen. After walking around the zoo and aquarium for a while, we head over to the 100 year market. I only bought a few pieces of jewelry and a hand made wooden jenga set. But it was nice to walk around and see what they were selling.  After the market, our last stop was the Chinese Dragon Temple close to our house. 

After we got back home, we ordered some pizzza, and got ready to try our luck at a Thai night club, which apparently we have in Suphanburi. It was definitely interesting. And we were the only foreigners in the place. There is nothing quite like walking through a sea of people in really dark lighting, but since you are the only blonde in the building, being stared at when you walk by. We had fun though and met up with some of the other teachers we work with. Well we have next monday off so long weekend! Which means some more beach time! 

Kanchanaburi

For the rest of the NYE weekend we headed out to Kanchanaburi. We got there Thursday night, woke up Friday morning and did some site seeing. Friday, we got to WWII museums and a Temple in the early afternoon. Then later in the afternoon we got a ride to the Tiger Temple. It was really amazing. You get to sit next to and pet Tigers. They feed the Tigers before and lay them in the sun so they are tired and lazy. Brittany and I wanted to pay extra to be able to hold the head of the Tiger in our laps but when we got into the pit of Tigers, all of the Tigers started to waken up a lot of start walking around so they would not let anyone hold the heads. So we got the regular pictures instead. After we saw the Tigers we could walk around the grounds of the rest of the Temple. This Temple takes in orphaned animals and takes care of them. They had peacocks, wild boars, a camel, birds, cows, horses. Tons of different animals.

Saturday, we got up early and got on a bus to the Erawan National Park. It has a seven-tiered waterfall that is amazing. It's a 700m hike up to the seventh tier. Each tier you get to has a different waterfall look and it truly amazes you. Even hiking from one to the next is a feat. As you get higher the trail gets smaller, rockier and steeper. We spent a lot of time at the first two

tiers thinking we would have time to get to the seventh and swim at each. We started around 10am walking up to the first and got to the 5th around 2pm. We rushed up to the seventh and then got a bit of exercise running all the way back down the mountain to catch the bus at 4pm. We got to swim in some of the waterfalls, and had a really awesome time exploring the National Park. It is definitely worth the trip. And the pictures are just a small part of how amazing some of the waterfalls and views are.

Christmas Eve, Christmas and NYE

Christmas Eve was quite eventful. Jen, Marty and Belinda, the three tazmanian teachers that are there for 3 months, found us tickets to the AFF Thailand vs. Vietnam Soccer Cup Finals. We rented a van to take to Bangkok for the day right after school. We had great seats. About 3rd row right in view of one of the goals. We bought so much Thai paraphernalia everyone wanted pictures of us. We bought scarves, flags, wristbands, ribbons, and t-shirts. I think we posed for about 50 pictures with Thai people stopping us every 5 minutes. We had a really good time though. Thailand lost 2-1 in the last few minutes of the game. 

Christmas was not so eventful. We had to work, which sucked. But most of us refused to actually have class. I showed The Grinch my classes and we just relaxed. In the morning after my first class, Bank who works in the office told us that we had to go to the hospital for a physical for our work permit. So Catie and I sat in a hospital on Christmas for 3 hours, peeing in cups, taking X-Rays, and waiting in lines. It was a blast! But even though the hospital was pretty bad when we got back to school there was a Christmas lunch of pizza and Thai food waiting for us which was nice of the Thai staff to do for us. Definitely a memorable Christmas. 

New Years Eve Catie and I headed to Bangkok to meet up with Heather, Brittany, Sara and Mary. We stayed in a nice hotel and went to Center World Plaza for the countdown. I think underestimated how packed it was actually going to be in Bangkok when we headed downtown. It was so packed and crowded we started getting frustrated. There were a few areas closed of for people with wristbands. Each area was sponsored by a different Thai beer. One area, the Chang beer area, was the only one with no wristbands so we figured we'd go for it. We hoped over the fence with some Chang beer cans and walked casually into the area. There was a stage with a band playing in each area, tables, chairs, sections with couches and steps. We found a waitress who seemed to like us and led us to an empty table! By 11:30 we had beers, a table and an awesome view for the fireworks. It seemed to work out pretty nicely! Right after the countdown, a group of people left the couch area and we grabbed that and stayed all night partying with the Thai people next to us. Not a bad New Years Eve!

Phuket

Phuket was probably the most amazing weekend yet, since I've been in Thailand. We left right after we got back Friday from camp for the airport in Bangkok. We met up with Heather and Sara since Brittany was already in Phuket with Colin. We arrived in Phuket around midnight and Colin had a car waiting for us at the airport. We pulled up to the Aleenta resort and met up with Colin and Brittany. 

The resort was gorgeous, and our room was even more amazing. We had a loft with a king size bed, an amazing bathroom with hottub and standing shower, our own private pool and deck and glass doors looking out to the pool that opened all the way. That night we found out that Brittany got into Med School! So we celebrated a little bit before bed! The next morning we woke up pretty early because Colin had rented a private 40ft speedboat to take us island hopping aall day! We left at 8am and returned at 5pm, we saw about 5-7 islands. We ate lunch on a deserted island and the crew on the boat set up a picnic for us, which was delicious! It felt pretty unreal! When we got back from our trip we ate dinner at the hotel and relaxed. 

Sunday we had a full day to hang out. Brittany and Colin went to do some activities, and four of us decided to enjoy the resort. We laid on the beach, went in our pool, had breakfast brought to our room, and made sure we took some hot showers while we could. We left Sunday night around 9pm. Overall, a wonderful weekend thanks to Colin!