Ban Phe Week 2

I can't believe I am half way done with the class already. The last two weeks have flown by. I have a lot to write today ... brace yourselves.

Last Monday, Kelli (a friend from the course) and I went to the Ban Phe night market. On our way there we ran into some elephants on the street. It was exciting at first, but then it just looked so sad and unnatural for them to be on paved streets, eating the weeds growing out of the sidewalk. But, I can officially say I've seen elephants in Thailand now! And to top it all off, within minutes of seeing the elephants, we saw a monkey being held by some woman on a motorbike! We felt like we were at the circus, but we got a good laugh out of it to say the least ... I mean the monkey was just unreal. By the time we got to the night market, we felt like our quota of excitement for the night had been used up, but the market was really neat. The prices were great because they get so few tourists there (we saw one other westerner there ... it was awesome), so we didn't have to bargain much, which is always a plus for me. Tomorrow, one of our trainers is going to take us there again and show us where to get the really good stuff for super duper cheap.

School was nuts this week. Monday night and Tuesday night we had next to nothing to for homework, but on Wednesday it got crazy!!! Wednesday we had to do our lesson plans and prepare for our first teaching practice for Thursday. We had to create a bunch of materials and practice practice practice. We were all nervous wrecks, knowing we were going to have to get up early and teach our first hour long lesson! A bunch of us ended up drinking a few beers across the street at the restaurant just to get away from it all ... before we knew it, it was 11pm and we still needed to do one more run through, shower (because by the end of a humid day, the last thing you want to do is crawl into bed all sticky and gross) and go to bed!

Needless to say, we were tired and nervous as can be come Thursday morning. I had to start my lesson at 8:30, and I was freaking out (pacing around the room, nervously babbling, the whole bit). My class of ten 15 year olds walked in, and away I went. It was so exhilarating! It's good to note here that Thai students are very well behaved, but I was very lucky to have a class that was talkative and excited to be there. They made everything seem so easy, and since they were such good participants, I felt really good about it! So ... I survived day one of teaching practice with no scars!

We had to do teaching practice again on Friday, so we went through the whole process of lesson planning, practicing and creating materials again on Thursday, but most of us went to bed significantly earlier :) Friday's lesson did not go as smoothly, but that's why it's teaching practice. I couldn't get my language consistent, and when you're teaching a dialog, that's really important. So I learn and move on to the next lesson (which will be this Thursday).

Friday night a few of us decided we should hit up some of the karaoke bars that are scattered all over. Unfortunately, the first karaoke bar we went to didn't turn out to be karaoke. Apparently they also have bars for people who actually have talent. Oops. We requested that we sing Zombie, by the Cranberries, because Thais seem to REALLY like this song at karaoke bars. We know this because the one down the road can be heard from the school, and we hear this song played up to 4 times a night, and the Thai accent with it is priceless. Anyway, so they call us up on stage and we realize none of us really know the words. Since it isn't a karaoke bar, they only play the back music, which means we have no idea what the melody is ... So it was 3 farang (Thai word for foreigner, meaning something like alien when literally translated) up on a stage singing terribly and laughing hysterically. We were basically boo'd off the stage. So we paid our bill and got out of there. We then went to the karaoke bar down the road from school and accidentally ordered a large beer, that turned out to be humongous (we called it "literally large")! So we called everyone we knew (which isn't very many) to come help us drink our yard high beer, and retired by midnight. Someone got some good pictures from this evening, none of the karaoke mishap, but the beer mishap is there as well as some of us learning traditional Thai dance. When I can get them from her, I'll be sure to post them.

Yesterday (Saturday), Jess (another trainee) and I went into Rayong (a city near Ban Phe) to do some shopping. We took songteaus (covered flatbed trucks with benches in the bed of the truck) to the mall. Jess is a tiny thing ... smaller than a lot of Thais. So shopping in Thailand is not too hard for her, because she's their size. I on the other hand am bigger around and taller than most, so it's a bit of a struggle. Jess and I were in a shop, and like normal, the woman working at the shop starts bringing me clothes and saying "I have big sizes!", I thank her and start trying it on. Too small, or ugly ... nothing worked. Jess starts trying on things, and things are too big or ugly. She was a very nice and friendly woman, but she looked at the two of us and says to Jess "you need to get fat" then looks at me and says "you should give her some of your food"!!! I was warned that Thais are very honest and find humor in size, so I was waiting for a moment like this one. I almost keeled over in laughter when I saw that this nice Thai woman was giggling at her clever comment. Jess didn't know what to say, but luckily I was in a good mood, I thought it was hysterical.

After a long day at the mall, we came back to Ban Phe and had an Australian Roast at a restaurant owned by an Aussie. I had roast lamb and veggies and boy was it good. We were all in seventh heaven eating our western food. We love our Thai food, but there is something so comforting about eating something from home (even if the US doesn't do a "proper roast", it still tasted like home).

Today has been a lazy day. Lots of reading and a walk to Old Ban Phe to see if the Kodak store was open (in case you were wondering, it wasn't).

So things are good here, I'm having a blast and finally feel more at ease. Can't believe how fast it is going ... But it feels like forever since I've seen anyone. Weird how that works :)

I'm off to bed ... Goodnight!