A Summation of my First Month Living and Teaching in Sejong City, Korea

Surprise! I now live and work in South Korea and have been for about a month now. And you know what? It’s honestly been an amazing ride thus far.

Here’s a bit of the background story:

Matt and I made the decision to come here to teach rather quickly and at an inconvenient time. We had just moved to San Jose, California in July to start a low-paying, high-demanding, and uninteresting after school job. While subletting there for only six days, we dropped hundreds of dollars on just living and surviving there and realized we’d need to spend a lot more in the near future on things such as a car, car insurance, an apartment (deposit and rent), and so on. We immediately realized what a ridiculous and poorly thought out decision we had made. It wasn’t so ridiculous just because of the job, the low pay, or the expensive lifestyle of San Jose, but it was mainly because we both desperately wanted to teach abroad again– and knew that before even moving to California.

Pretty stupid, right? Yeah, we thought so, too, but, I have to be honest: I had felt so relieved once we made the decision to look for teaching jobs in Korea and again when we landed the job we have currently. Fortunately, not much time had passed between the two, either! So, while we were subletting in a house in San Jose, we were getting our documents together for Korea, taking cabs here and there and back again. It was exhausting, but immensely exciting!

After our month-long sublet was over, we returned home to New York to see family and friends for a month. Then, we made our trek across the globe to South Korea!

Anyway, we’ve been in Sejong City, Korea for a month and it’s been wonderful. I’m still overwhelmingly relieved and glad we made the ultimate decision to come here and teach for a year. Just to sum up four weeks of Korea, here’s a list of stuff after we arrived:

• We landed at Incheon Airport in Seoul.
• We stayed at a random hotel in a pretty deserted part of Seoul Province (Seoul is significantly larger and more wide-spread than you would have imagined, since there’s a Seoul province and a Seoul city).
• Ate some food where we first experienced Korean food and their amazing plethora of side dishes

Side dishes!

• Knocked out from exhaustion
• Got a ride from the hotel owner back to the airport, then got a bus from the airport at to Sejong City
• When we arrived in Sejong, we were picked up by a worker from our hogwon (private school) and driven to our hogwon immediately, even though all we wanted to do was relax and take a shower!
• We had to stay with the people who we were replacing for about a week until they moved out (inconvenient, yes, but not bad because they were really nice and helpful). But, after that week, we got to have a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, clean, rent-free apartment to ourselves! (I’ll make a separate post about that in a little bit!)
• Our job had us watch the other teachers teach the day after we arrived, even with our jetlag. Apparently, this is common in Korea.
• We started teaching a few days afterward and it’s way better than teaching in Thailand. The kids care (generally) and so does the administration, which is so important. However, breaks are extremely rare during the work day. But, I honestly don’t see that as much of a negative because the day flies. Oh, and our day starts at 1:00 pm, or 2:00 pm, depending on the day of the week. So awesome.
• We explored Sejong and discovered that it’s beautiful, both naturally and industrially.

What’s this guy riding?

These are everywhere here and they’re terrifiying, but thankfully not poisonous!

This guy is a fun time.

A pizza chain’s slogan on one of their plates: “Love for Women”

I’d really love to know what this sign says…

• We worked for the entire month, having a great time doing so. The people we work with are helpful and sweet, the kids are good and the classes are small, so they’re easier to handle, and the material is easy and fun to teach.
• We went out for drinks in Sejong with a few fellow teachers one weekend and it was a great time! Except for the vomit. Korea works hard and plays hard. And so, they vomit. A lot.

• Matt and I realized that we weren’t really fans of Korean food. I mean, there’s a lot of spam in a lot of food items. Not a fan of spam. Upsetting, but we’re still trying to learn to like the food! We still have eleven months to go, after all. Here’s some food we ate so far:

Some food we cooked in front of ourselves…
Not sure of the name or what was in it!

Silkworm larvae in a Japanese restaurant in Sejong (not yummy)

Vegetable bibimbap! 

An extremely expensive meal (about $43), but it was comprised of lots of pork, which you placed in lettuce leaves, and ate with sauce and side dishes (kimchi is on the far right on bottom). Also, beer and soju! 

Black Soybean Noodles (ah-mazing, actually)

And soju (“red” flavored), which tastes wonderful.
Soju is served with most dinners and drank in shots

• Oh, and for the Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok, our job gave us four bottles (two each) of French wine! That’s definitely worth mentioning!

Basically, Korea is amazing and totally different from Thailand in so many ways. But, we are loving it and are extremely excited for the rest of our year here! Stay tuned. 🙂

The Captivating Emerald Waterfalls at Erawan National Park, Complete with Formally Dressed Trees and Dead Skin-Munching Fish

After school had eventually ended, the following weeks before our flight home in mid-April were dedicated to the exploration of Thailand.

First stop: Kanchanburi province to see the glorious Erawan National Park!

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Matt, Paul, and I ventured early from our apartment in Chonburi to Bangkok via a couple of minivans, one of which held and later kicked out a belligerent old man with an orange cat on a string. That provided us with a bit of entertainment, that was for sure.

In Bangkok, we took yet another minivan to Kanchanaburi, where we then squeezed into a tuk-tuk and sped and weaved our way to our motel. After arriving at the Jolly Frog, we noticed that there were two twin-sized beds, a fan, a dresser, and a bathroom. It was extremely dingy and toasty (a fan doesn’t do anything to soothe you in the Thailand heat!), but we decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we stayed there.

We waltzed around the streets for a bit and saw numerous inviting bars, a 7-11 (of course. No Thai town/city is complete without a 7-11), and a few small shops. Then, we headed back to eat some dinner at our motel, which also had a restaurant attached, and that turned out to be phenomenal! They had Thai food, American food, and, surprisingly, Mexican food! And they did an awesome job with it all.

We then headed out to one of the bars later on in the evening to drink and hang out before hiking in the national park the next day. Matt unfortunately didn’t drink because he was feeling a little sick and didn’t want his cold to get any worse because who wants to hike in Thailand heat and humidity with a fever?

Eventually, we headed back to the room to catch some sleep. Paul knocked out immediately, but Matt and I couldn’t sleep whatsoever. It was stiflingly hot, almost suffocating, and Matt was feeling worse than he was earlier. So, at around one a.m., we decided to go searching for another hotel that had air conditioning. We fortunately did, then went back to our room at the Jolly Frog’s, exhaustively gathered our stuff, scribbled a note for Paul, then went to our new hotel and slept like we had never slept before.

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ERAWAN

Eventually, we rolled out of bed and, although Matt was still feeling sick, he decided that it was worth it to go to Erawan nevertheless. So, we slapped on some light clothes, sneakers, and a backpack, and headed to Jolly Frog’s to find Paul, grab some breakfast, and ride a song tao for an hour to the mountain.

Having a work visa, by the way, has some wonderful benefits! Upon arrival at the gate about an hour later, we had to pay 600 baht each, which is about twenty dollars. However, with our visas, we only had to pay 300 baht altogether. Pretty sweet deal!

Anyway, we started to hike up the mountain and marveled at the beauty of the multiple and individually awing tiers of Erawan falls.

During our hike up the mountain, we noticed that several tree trunks were heavily decorated in formal Thai clothes! It was a very interesting sight and, don’t quote me on this because this is kindof hearsay, they supposedly were tied there to religiously honor the park and nature overall. 

I have to say that, as typical as it may sound, the final tier of the falls was my favorite. You could look up and see a far above cliff, heavily grooved from years of erosion from the waterfalls, and past it, the blaring sun and clear blue sky.

Paul and I went swimming in the final tier, which was such an amazing swimming experience. The water was freezing, which was completely different from the gulf of Thailand we had swam in before, but it was perfect, since we were so hot. It was a very light blue color, holding white-colored rocks throughout. Within the water, fish swam peacefully, but they actually gnawed on your body to “manga” on your dead skin! It was a strange sensation, feeling tiny fish lips sucking on my skin, but it wasn’t all that horrible. It was honestly more startling than anything, since you don’t usually expect a fish to nibble you and help you in a way!

It was wonderful relaxing there, floating and admiring the natural beauty all around me. I soaked it in as fish pricked my skin while I did so. Eventually, we got out and headed back down the trail and I said goodbye to one of the most beautiful parks I’d ever witnessed.       

Monkey Mountain: An Eerie Hike with Ravenous Wild Monkeys

During one of our weekends off from school in January, Matt and I decided to go to Monkey Mountain, which was luckily only a couple of Song Tao rides away from our apartment. We heard about it from a couple of foreign teachers from our school and figured, hey– we don’t have anything to do today. Let’s go hang out with some wild monkeys on a mountain.

And so, we did. We hopped on one Song Tao in the stifling heat and humidity, sticking to the plastic seats and not receiving much recourse from the wind as we drove. Eventually, we got off by Bang Saen beach and walked a bit to find the blue Song Tao, which would take us in the direction of the mountain. When we told the driver that we wanted to go to Monkey Mountain, he understood (surprise!) and took us there. But, he didn’t stop to let us off, which we assumed he would do, considering we didn’t know where the mountain was or when or where to get off. He drove past macaque monkeys, other cars stopped with monkeys on their roofs, and scattered older Thai women with straw hats selling bushels of miniature bananas. But he didn’t stop. After turning right and making it back to the main road, Matt and I realized the driver wasn’t going back, so we pushed the buzzer above us to signal him to stop and we stepped off.

Already soaked with sweat, we walked at an incline back to where we drove past the monkeys. And we sweated even more. Finally, we reached the starting point of monkey mountain and yes, just as you may have imagined, there were monkeys everywhere. 

We approached one of the Thai women in the straw hats and bought a bushel of bananas to feed the monkeys. While purchasing the bananas, we noticed two things: 1. the lady was nice and spoke a bit of English, since she said “Oh my god!” when I dropped money on the ground and it was hysterical; and 2. her teeth were as black as night. I mean, they really were! I have never seen teeth that rotted before.

Anywho, we decided to climb the mountain via the sidewalk rather than the road, since there were cars coming and going there. While walking along the sidewalk, we noticed it was scattered with monkeys. As we walked along, we would hand a monkey a banana and watch as they took it from our hands and quickly ate it right in front of us.

A couple of monkeys; me handing a banana to a monkey; monkeys along the sidewalk

After a few minutes, we couldn’t shake this eerie feeling that all of the monkeys were watching us from all angles. From the sidewalk, from inside the bushes, and from the branches on the trees above us. And they really were.

It grew more terrifying as we realized that we were the only ones walking on the sidewalk. Everyone else was below us on the street, but in their cars. No one stepped out of their car. Not one person.

We continued to walk on, handing out bananas as we went. Eventually, the sidewalk ended with a staircase winding down to the road. We walked down it and had to walk the rest of the way up via the road.

A monkey sitting on the road

We also had given all of our bananas away, so we had to buy some more. However, the next Thai lady that was selling food to give to the monkeys only sold small straw-woven bowls of peanuts. So, Matt purchased one.

Monkeys, cars, and the Thai lady we bought the peanuts from (in the pink)

He walked not even ten feet and three monkeys were surrounding him and staring at the basket of peanuts with hungry eyes. He tried handing them out to the monkeys, but he wasn’t giving away enough for them. More monkeys appeared as if from nowhere, badgering Matt for the peanuts. The woman who sold us the peanuts came over and tried to stop the monkeys from overwhelming Matt, which worked for a few seconds, but once the lady walked away, they came back for more. Matt said, “Fuck this!” and placed the bowl on the ground and speed-walked away, leaving a mob of monkeys gorging themselves behind him.

We continued up the mountain, still frightful of the conniving primates, but desperate to finish the climb that we started. Dripping with perspiration, we eventually made it to a false peak, which was surprisingly beautiful. It had some steps, leading to an aged platform that looked out onto the shimmering Gulf of Thailand. It was a wonderful place of refuge!

After that, we made our way to the actual top of the mountain, which actually wasn’t as magical as we had hoped. Just more monkeys, which were crazier than the others in that they were all aggressive towards each other, tackling and biting each other, and a collection of Thai people and their cars.

We glanced at the view and continued on the road back down the mountain. After waiting several minutes, a blue Song Tao picked us up.

And what do you know? It took us past Monkey Mountain! This time, we didn’t even look at them. We just kept our wet heads inside the pickup truck and anxiously waited to leave the mountain behind.

What is your experience with wild monkeys? Where were you when you experienced them?

An Ode to Our Not-So-Wild Wild Thai Dogs

In case you weren’t already aware, there are wild dogs everywhere in Thailand. They are on every street and they’re usually in packs, rummaging around through piles of garbage. That may sound relatively terrifying, but they all tend to keep to themselves for the most part. Most of them are even nice to people! And even adorable!

As for the wild dogs by our apartment building, we were fortunate enough to be surrounded by the kind and cute ones.

I’ll give you an idea of our apartment building area just to help clarify where the wild dogs were located. We had a four floor apartment building called the Ing Swiss (who knows what they were going for with that name) and underneath it was a small, open parking lot/garage where the owners/workers lived and worked and tenants parked their cars and motorbikes. To the right of our apartment building was a very loud and bumpin’ brothel. Yes, we lived next to a brothel. Very enthralling! The owners of our apartment building also owned the brothel, so there was a pathway between the two buildings.

Most of the adult dogs lived under our apartment building in the parking lot and the one puppy who was born in early January lived in the pathway, but hung out with the other dogs in the parking lot/garage.

Okay, so basically, we had four dogs of our own! And they were all very loving and sweet and always close by.

And now, without further ado: pictures of our fur babies!

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Tao

Tao was maybe three or four years old. He was a bit mangy and when you scratched his head for even a moment, your fingertips would come up black with dirt. However, he was one of the most protective and sweetest dogs I’ve ever met. When we walked down the road to have dinner or even walk to school, he would trot in front of us and continually look back at us to make sure we were alright. He would actually walk us all the way from our apartment building to the restaurant or school. It was amazing to us!

Occasionally, we would sit outside of the Italian restaurant, Granchio’s, across the street with a couple of other foreign teachers for drinks and food. And Tao, being the big sweetheart he was, would always join us. He would sit by us and try to play bite us (he did that all the time, but never hurt anyone) to get us to pet him. He was such a sweetie.

Tao hanging out with us and a couple of friends at Granchio’s, begging for attention

Happy

Happy and her baby, Lulu

Yes, there was a dog named Happy! She was named “Happy” because she had a mean underbite and our apartment building’s owners were clever enough to come up with the ironic name. Plus, she was a very tranquil and loving dog.

She lived under our apartment building. She literally never left, so every time we came home from eating or school or traveling, she would waltz up to us, wanting food and affection. She was incredibly skinny and mangy, but loved a good headscratch.

Happy was Tao’s baby mama, by the way. Numerous times! She had a litter of puppies before we arrived and, apparently, all of her puppies died for various reasons. How sad! Then, she had another litter while we were there, but only one puppy survived: Lulu.

Lulu

Lulu was the baby of the dog club at the Ing Swiss. She was white, just like her mom, but was just as sweet as both of her parents. She was always playful (I mean, come on, she was a puppy) and loved to be held and petted. Lulu was also the cleanest of all the dogs, so obviously we all had no problem holding and petting her constantly!

I would elaborate on how adorable she is, but I think the pictures will speak better than I can!

Our foreign teacher friend, Cholla, with Lulu when she was a couple of weeks old; Matt and Lulu

Lulu; Matt with Lulu and Tao 

Lulu = Simba (sorry it’s such a short video)

Lucky

Lucky (top) and Lulu (bottom)

Last, but certainly not least, Lucky! Lucky was adopted by the two workers at the apartment building in the first couple of weeks of our living there. He was just a little puppy then and so sweet! And he was generally clean!

The workers who owned him kept him chained under the apartment building. But, maybe that was to keep him safe because Tao was a rather territorial dog and probably wouldn’t be a fan of another male dog around.

But, at any rate, Lucky was so precious and sweet! He, just like the other dogs, desired attention and to be petted. So, he would get a little jealous when we were petting Lulu, Tao, or Happy, and would bark at us until we went over to him and played with him.

Lucky as a puppy when he first arrived

All of our dogs were incredibly loving and changed the stigma I had about wild dogs. They also helped in showing me that, although Thailand holds some of the kindest people, Thailand holds some of the kindest dogs, too!

A video of Lulu, Happy, Tao, and Lucky, who is barking in the background for attention!

What is your experience with wild dogs abroad?

Pork Larb with White Rice

This is one of those dishes that I’m profoundly disappointed in myself for not discovering earlier.

During our visa run to Laos in January, Matt and I went to the restaurant in the lobby of our hotel for dinner. While flipping through the menu, we found that there was an extensive amount of Thai food options, but considering we were in Laos, we wanted to try a Laotian dish. After flipping through some more, we found “larb,” which, according to the menu, was a popular Laotian dish. Exactly what we were looking for!

We ordered it and weren’t quite sure of what to expect when they brought it out to us. But, when they finally did and we took a bite out of it, we were astonished at the amazing flavor! It was spicy (I’m not a huge spicy fan, but it was somehow perfect here) with chilies, ground pork, fried basil, garlic, and white rice. Sounds simple, but it was packed with flavor.

The only downfall of this flavorful meal was that it was a small portion. However, that’s how Thailand’s portions are as well, so we were used to it by then…kindof. We still wanted more!

Fortunately, after returning to Thailand, Matt and I found larb on the menus of a few other places in which we ate! It was a wonderful discovery and was just as delicious as this larb! I hope I am able to try this again some day soon. But, I hope that you are able to try it for yourself some day sooner!

Thin Noodle Stir-Fry

Stir-fry is always a delightfully delicious meal, but it is particularly mind-blowing when it’s made in Thailand. And Thai stir-fry is even better– even when you thought that it was impossible– when it’s made by street vendors.

After going to the Chonburi mall one weekend, Matt and I decided to grab dinner from a street vendor before going back to our apartment for the night. While perusing the various carts, we weren’t quite interested in anything because a lot of carts were selling more snack-like foods. Eventually, we stumbled upon a cart with three workers, presumably mother, father, and daughter, working two large woks. We came to a sudden halt to admire the concoctions being made within the woks. The daughter was stirring some thin noodles with soy sauce, fish sauce, oil, egg, chicken, and a mystery vegetable (maybe bok choy?). We were drooling. I quickly ordered “song,” which is “two” in Thai, and we sat down, salivating at the thought of some stir-fry.

After a couple of minutes of sitting on backless plastic chairs, the daughter brought over two bowls of stir-fry. And we enjoyed every bite of it. Every ingredient in the meal was so fresh, flavorful, and juicy, it was magical. It was perfect and melt-in-your-mouth worthy. I still look at the picture of it now and drool a bit.

Oh so delicious street stir-fry

A Couple of “Fun” Days for Teachers and a Visa Run to Laos

January 7th, 2015

Ah, yes. Teachers Sports Day. On the same day that we had to leave for our Visa Run to Laos, we had a lovely day off from school dedicated to teachers participating in a sports day. Four schools, one of them being ours, competed against each other in a number of predetermined sports.

The sports (at least, the ones I could recall) were volleyball, basketball, chairball, and some sport where it’s basically volleyball and soccer combined. Oh, and if you don’t know what chairball and the second sport are, that’s totally normal because these sports are pretty much played in only Thailand (as far as I know, anyway).

During the indoor volleyball match, all of the Thai and foreign teachers who weren’t participating in any sports had to sit in the bleachers, holding spray painted cardboard, which when placed together, made the Thai flag. And we had to dance with our white glove covered hands and pom-poms. And cheer…sort of. We just sang and moved our pom-poms around. Our school was honestly more obsessed with our cheering than the actual game. Odd, coming from America where winning in sports and cheering people on in them is so common.

Oh, and a few of the Thai teachers, both men and women, wore some interesting outfits to get us to cheer louder.

Eventually, us foreign teachers got bored and decided to walk around the premises, which was actually a lovely park that contained the Chonburi Football Club stadium and various other buildings and courts where the Teachers Sports Day was held. We watched some chairball, which is kindof like basketball, except there’s no dribbling, only passing, and instead of baskets, they have people standing on chairs, holding actual baskets above their heads. That got boring eventually, so we watched the volleyball-soccer games, which were surprisingly very entertaining! The Thai men who were playing were extremely skilled at the sport! It was my favorite sport to watch there.

Then, we moved on and watched basketball because they had one of the foreign teachers playing for our school! He was the only foreign teacher to be able to play (of the games I watched, anyway), so we obviously all had to watch. And guess what? We won!

The Director of our school (in dress pants) posing with our winning basketball team

After that, Matt and I grabbed our heaping backpacks and headed out to Laos!

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Visa Run to Laos: January 7th-January 9th

Alright, I have to be entirely honest with you: our excursion to Laos wasn’t exactly as exciting as you may think or hope it would’ve been. So, in order to keep you interested, I have decided to just make a short list of things we witnessed and did both in and on the way to Laos.

1. We took a 12-hour bus ride there. Yes, yet another forever-long bus ride.
2. We hardly slept at all on that bus because of the screaming Russian women at the front of the bus.
3. We arrived at the border before dawn and waited a half hour for the gates to allow us (and about fifty other people that were there!) to cross over.
4. Passport control will always have a long line, apparently even at the Laos border at six in the morning.

After passport control on a bus into Laos (notice the impending sunrise)

5. Laos looks a lot like Thailand, from the vegetation to the buildings.
6. I passed right out in the passenger’s seat in a minivan full of strangers (and Matt).
7. The Thai Embassy looked real fancy!

The Thai Embassy; Elephants on the wall of the embassy

8. Laos has SANDWICHES. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but since Matt and I are such huge sandwich lovers and Thailand doesn’t have any anywhere, it was pretty exciting.
9. The agency that we went with to take care of our Non-Immigrant B visas was fantastic. They did literally everything for us while we basically tagged along. I gotta give them big kudos for that.
10. We were finished with our visas for the day and, when we arrived to our hotel, we immediately took a five-hour nap. It was magical.
11. We attempted to walk around our block after we woke up, but there was honestly nothing where we were. There were buildings and cars all around, but nowhere to eat or even just go except in our hotel.

Tables outside of our hotel; the hotel itself from the outside

12. We had some amazing food for dinner from there, though. It was called larb. It was spicy with ground pork, rice, basil, chilies, and deliciousness. Would definitely recommend to a friend.

Larb (so good)

13. Fun fact: Laos accepts Thai baht (ya know, their currency)! Super convenient. And we got Laotian currency in change!

Laotian currency

14. After hanging out in the lobby of the hotel and speaking occasionally with some kind and outgoing Korean twenty-somethings who were there for school, Matt and I went to sleep for an absurd amount of hours until the morning, when we needed to leave with our agency to collect our passports with our new visas from the Thai embassy (hello, run-on sentence).
15. We got our new visas with no problems!
16. We immediately headed back to the border for another forever long ride back to Bangkok.
17. There was traffic at 2 a.m. in Bangkok after another exhausting trip. We took a cab from there and ended up walking into our apartment in Chonburi at 3:30 a.m.

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Teacher “Appreciation” Day!
January 16th

Apparently in Thailand, there are two holidays dedicated to teachers during the school year: one where the students “appreciate” their teachers with gifts and other fun things and another where the teachers and students have the day off, but the teachers congregate in a specific school, listen to Buddhist monks pray and sing, sing karaoke, and eat mountains of food.

We celebrated the latter.

Here is the layout for the day’s very interesting events:

• Arrive at our school with other Thai and foreign teachers
• Hop into a line of minivans and travel an hour away to some school in the middle of nowhere
• Take swigs of other foreign teachers’ incognito alcoholic beverages
• Arrive at middle-of-nowhere school
• Eat some rice soup for breakfast (just like our school had for almost every morning. We weren’t enthralled).
• Sit and wait for some instructions
• Walked around out of boredom

The school grounds

• Took more swigs of alcohol from fellow kind and generous foreign teachers all while admiring caged roosters, which were used primarily for cockfighting

• Sat in a large auditorium, listening to monks sing and pray for a couple of hours in pure confusion, and watched Thai teachers accept awards

   

The auditorium with monks at the front; Matt and I; our foreign teacher friends; more monks

• Got soaked in holy water from a monk

• Got yelled at by the head director of our school for talking too loudly
• Congregated under a large tent with numerous tables and chairs
• Sat with some foreign teachers (we had to split into two tables, unfortunately) and ate a plethora of flavorful Thai dishes, including grilled whole fish with chilies, soup, fried rice, and so many more that I can’t remember or explain. However, it was hands down one of me and Matt’s favorite meals in Thailand. We honestly couldn’t get enough!
• Listened to random Thai people dance and sing karaoke while we shoveled spicy and delicious food into our faces. And one of those people singing was the director of our school! It was hilarious, to say the least.

Thai dancers (I’m so sad I didn’t get documentation of our director singing)

• Eventually, we headed back to our school with full bellies and fuzzy heads (from alcohol and confusion from the day). Then, headed back home.

All in all, the three adventures were awesome, hilarious, confusing, and amazing experiences.

Thanks for reading, guys! 🙂
Next post: Our Wild Dogs!

Christmas Fun in Thailand!

When being thousands of miles away from home, it’s only natural to feel a little homesick. During Christmas time in Thailand, I did feel a bit homesick and was saddened that I wasn’t surrounded by my family. However, I was also glad to be in Thailand during this holiday to witness firsthand what it was like to celebrate this holiday in a completely different country and culture.

And big surprise: it was nothing like I had expected.

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Being that Thailand is primarily Buddhist, the country doesn’t particularly celebrate the holiday, but it does recognize it. Throughout our city, there were Christmas decorations hung up.

Snoopy and a large, beautifully decorated Christmas tree outside our mall

Even at our school on Christmas Day, there were decorations aplenty!
Oh, and every single person was slathered in cherry red and every child had a Santa hat on.

During the school day, there wasn’t much teaching. For most of the morning, everyone in the school convened in an auditorium-like room and watched numerous children on stage sing and dance (mostly to “Jingle Bell Rock,” which seems to be the Christmas song of choice in Thailand).

While sitting with Matt and a few other foreign teachers, however, we were appalled at the nature of the dancing. The dancing, which was done mostly by ten-year-olds, was incredibly provocative.

At one point, a group of young girls were dancing in their red Christmas attire, which was quickly ripped off to reveal tight-fitting clothes underneath. The girls then proceeded to “twerk” on their hands and knees on the floor.

The best part of this was not even the performers, but the audience of about three thousand children and about a hundred teachers. They were going nuts. They were standing up, cheering, taking videos and pictures, and dancing along with them!

It was actually hilarious. I sincerely wish I had gotten that on video. I’m incredibly sorry that I didn’t!

Most of the assembly was like that for the rest of the morning, which was just a fantastic comedic routine for us. Then, the rest of the school day mainly consisted of students watching cartoons and just relaxing.

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Another intriguing celebration for Christmas was on the 26^th, where there was a teachers’ party hours after school ended.

It wasn’t exactly a “Christmas” celebration. It was just a celebration that happened to be near Christmas. However, there were some Christmas decorations… But, there was a sign above the stage that said “Happy New Year…” Alright, I guess I’ll just say it was a Christmas/New Year’s party for the teachers.

At the party, everyone was expected to wear traditional Thai clothes, which we all did. (Naturally, we didn’t have traditional Thai clothes in our wardrobes, so the school allowed us to borrow clothes from them).

Matt and I in traditional Thai clothes

There was a large buffet of Thai food that including items like papaya salad, pork noodle soup, fried chicken and pork, fried morning glory, fried noodles, and an assortment of other food items that I don’t know the names of or how to explain! And it was all delicious! And not to mention super spicy!

A snapchat I saved of the party

Unfortunately, there was no liquor supplied at the party. However, later in the evening we discovered that a couple of the Thai teachers had bottles of whiskey hidden behind one of the buffet tables. Naturally, we asked if we could have some and they were more than willing to share it with us!

As for entertainment at the party, on stage there was karaoke at the beginning, where Thai teachers aplenty jumped on stage and sang Thai songs. There were also numerous performances by Thai teachers, which can only be explained by videos:

After everyone was just about finished eating, there were also gift giveaways!

Our school was super rich, by the way, so they were giving away expensive items to randomly selected teachers for free, such as TVs, refrigerators, rice cookers, money, and so much more. All of the English teachers who went, including Matt and I, waited and waited for our names to be called, but they never seemed to get called. Eventually, while Matt and I were just about to leave the party, I heard my name called! I hopped up and practically ran (but didn’t because I would’ve tripped over my skirt) to the stage and guess what I won!?

Two hand towels. Big winner!

After that, we decided to walk back home. We were rather tipsy and tired and wanted to go to sleep (it was past 11:00! Thai people like to party).

It was a wonderful two day “celebration” of Christmas and, as much as I had missed being home, I was very thankful to be where I was with the people I got to share it with.

Thanks for reading, guys! 🙂
Next post: New Year’s in Koh Chang!

Merry very belated Christmas from Matt and I!

The Hell Garden– Yes, it’s just about as horrifying as it sounds

After our first week of school, we figured we could explore the area we would be living in for the next four months. We had heard from one of our friends during our tour in Kanchanaburi (remember that?) about them going to this Hell Garden, where there were statues of people in the afterlife being brutally tortured because they didn’t follow Buddhist scripture during their lives. While our friends were there, they were completely uncomfortable.

After hearing that, we naturally decided, “hey, we should totally go there!” So, we were able to because there was fortunately one close to where we lived!

On Saturday November 22nd, we asked our landlords how to get to the hell garden. After going back and forth with them for a while in two different languages, our landlord asked a fellow Thai tenant if he would drive us to the hell garden, which he instantly said “yes” to and invited us in his van (no, not like a white rape van or anything. People in Thailand are super nice and offer you rides places all the time. It’s real kind!).

Then, the four of us (our landlord tagged along) were on our way to the hell garden! Then, about twenty minutes later, Matt and I were being dropped off right outside the gate of the hell garden.
We waltzed inside the garden and were bombarded with just what we were told: large statues being brutally tortured.
Here are tons of pictures of the statues. Brace yourselves!

   

So, there you have it: the Hell Garden. I hope you won’t have too many nightmares tonight.

I hope you enjoyed! Let me know any comments or questions you have. Thank you so much for reading! 🙂

Week One at Anubanmuangmai Chonburi School

Finally– the part where I start teaching!

November 14th-17th

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Our way to Chon Buri: basically just a big, blinding headache. We jumped from our tour bus from Khanom, to a crammed minibus (after stuffing our tons of luggage in the back of it), to a tuk-tuk with a driver who got lost and asked for help from a passing by Thai woman (who spoke English!) on a motorbike.

Then, finally, we arrived at our apartment building. It was called the “Ing Swiss” and had very pleasant and welcoming workers, who were notified by our agency prior to our arrival that we would be showing up in need of an apartment, took us to our room. After climbing four flights of stairs (yeah, no elevator. Super unfortunate, I know), we arrived at our room. It was basically nothing more than a hotel room, really. There was no kitchen, which I noticed first, since I thoroughly enjoy cooking. But, that’s apparently the way it is here. You’d have to pay significantly more if you wanted an apartment with a kitchen. However, it had a queen-sized bed, a small resin wicker table with two matching chairs, a closet, and hey– a bathroom with a Western toilet. That was a huge plus!

This is our apartment at the Ing Swiss

We decided to take the apartment, especially because it was only a five minute walk from the school. …That, and we were exhausted from our travels and were not about to go apartment hunting.

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Monday, November 17th
Our first day at our school! And our first day ever as teachers!

When we arrived to our school a little before 7:30, we didn’t know where to go or who to talk to. Fortunately, we ran into another foreign English teacher, who knew where to go (it was also her first day). We were to report to our boss’s office, which was the MEP Office.

Just some info on our jobs: we were hired as MEP teachers. MEP stands for Mini English Program, where the teachers, who are native English speakers, teach English once a day every day, then Science, Math, Health, and P.E. once a week.

The three of us went to the MEP office and spoke with our new boss, who we were supposed to only call Khun Kung (pronounced “koon koong,” which basically is the polite name for a teacher, who told us to just go to our classes and teach. This was a bit disconcerting because none of us had a clue as to where our kids were in their classes, considering it was the beginning of the third week of school for them. But, we went on ahead to our classes anyway!

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My first class was English in second period. When I nervously stood in front of the class, I introduced myself as Teacher Marilyn. While introducing myself, I wrote three things about myself on the board: I am 22 years old, I am from America, and I have an orange cat.

After that, I had them all write three things about themselves. Unfortunately, a lot of them started copying what I wrote, but after I better explained what I wanted, they got the gist of it and wrote about themselves.

After they finished that, I decided to continue on to my next plan of action: People BINGO!

Classic ESL game. I handed out BINGO boards that I made before going into school. In each box on these boards, I had phrases such as “tallest student in class,” “has a dog,” “has a cat,” etc. In each box, my students had to find someone in the class that fit the criteria of one box and have them sign their name.

Too bad a majority my students didn’t quite understand the phrases I had written on the sheet, so they just scribbled random names all over the paper and handed them back to me. Then, time was up and their next teacher came in!

The view from my desk in my classroom

I sat down at my desk, waited until third period was over, and got up to teach them science during fourth period. Science, by the way, has always been my worst subject, so I didn’t know where to start or what to do. I asked one of my students where they were in their textbooks and he told me “Photosynthesis.”

So, I turned to the Photosynthesis chapter in the textbook, ready to just improv my way through the lesson, but all of my kids were running around with plant seeds and water bottles, saying they were going to grow plants.

I was entirely confused and overwhelmed, fearing I had to teach kids about growing plants in plastic bottles. Fortunately, the Thai science teacher showed up and did everything with the kids, since I shrugged at her in a plea for help. I just kind of waltzed around for the rest of the lesson and said, “Cool!” to all of the seeds they were planting in their water bottles.

After fourth period, I had lunch with Matt and sat at my desk for the rest of the day, which was fine because I figured out what I was going to do the following day.

When school ended, I was exhausted, although I’m not entirely sure why, since I only taught a total of two hours. Throughout the rest of the week, it was pretty much the same thing, only a bit easier because I knew what to expect: 30 confused ten-year-old Thai children who were adorable and excited to get to know me better.

At the end of the week, Matt and I were completely drained, but we were ecstatic about our new jobs and, of course, our students. All of our students were kind to us and approached us and attempted to communicate with us as much as possible. We had an outstanding first week and, despite our exhaustion, couldn’t wait for the weekend to be over so our second week could begin!

Thanks so much for reading, guys! I hope you enjoyed! Remember: you can leave any questions/comments you may have below. 🙂

Next post: Hell Garden in Bang Saen

The view of early morning Chonburi from our balcony (please excuse my fingertip in the second photo)