Hello, สวัสดี (Sa wa dii), Hola

After traveling for literally 45 I FINALLY made it to my orientation site at Pla Plak Wittaya (which is the high school in Pla Pak). At the Bangkok Airport I was greated by intense heat and an air conditioned van … which only helped some because at that point I had been traveling for 36 hours. But in any case I made it … we got to Pla Pak to find that our accommodations were really quite nice … a mat on the floor of an air conditioned room (one for boys and one for girls), 4 bathrooms in which toilet paper was actually being supplied for us (something that doesn’t happen in Thailand), and at least 1 western toilet (the rest are squatters, and all are manual flush, ie. Take a bucket of water to rinse away your pee). It may sound a little out of some peoples comfort zones and maybe even out of mine but I have adapted well and live by the thinking that if people here live like this why can’t I?

Sunday was a very relaxed day of getting used to being here, the weather has been rainy, cool and humid all at the same time but is actually a very nice way to be adjusted to Isan because it usually is quite brutally hot. Everyone in my group seems really great and we have a VERY funny dynamic which is making this a lot easier and a lot more fun than it could be. There are 13 of us, which right now seems like a great number!

Monday was the LONGEST day EVERRR! We literally had 12 hours of on-task activities. The morning began with our first day of Thai language lessons, then an impromptu field trip to the school’s rice fields where were learned how to harvest rice and play tunes (like a kazoo) on the stems of the rice plants. Of course I was the first person to correctly make a noise with mine, which caused a great deal of excited cheering! HA HA Then we had a long lunch and a LOT of TEFL training and Thai culture lessons. It was exhausting but fun.

Tuesday I learned the most important lesson for living in Thailand – “Mai pen rai” – It literally translates to “No Problem” and is used as ‘you’re welcome’ but it is also a state of mind/philosophy meaning “Do not worry about what you cannot change” – There are a lot of things you cannot change while living here and while the people are SO welcoming they don’t always have an exact plan or tell you the plan ahead of time. We met with the directors (principles) of our schools today in a surprisingly formal event which consisted of the library being turned into a board room complete with a giant square of tables with microphones on each side. We were formally introduced to our directors (while knowing a day’s worth of Thai) and had to speak to the whole room. (AHHHH!!!!) But then I remembered … mai pen rai … and I learned to laugh it off, smile, and just have a good time because the people of Nakhon Phanom want us here SO badly to help with their English that we are treated like celebrities and after all this is the land of smiles. After all of our working papers were properly filled out there was a huge banquet set up for us in the auditorium … and when I say huge I mean huge. Tables and chairs with many beverages at each table including, whiskey, beer, wine coolers, Coca Cola, and water with a bucket of ice. They brought out a legit 5 course meal for each table including two whole fish, a chicken dish, a salad, tom yum (which is a soup), a huge bowl of rice, the most amazing egg rolls I’ve ever had and another dish I have no way of even describing. For dessert we had fruit (even watermelon). Set up on the stage was a band, karaoke, and Thai dancing. There was also a huge banner that read:

“Welcome to Nakhon Phanom with warming and friendly On 5^th Oct. 2010”

It was beyond precious! We got up and sang many songs on karaoke as a group and danced all night! It was so much fun! Earlier in the morning during our Thai language class the head of police came to introduce himself to us and tell us that he will work very hard to keep us very safe in Thailand and that he is very happy we are here. (He speaks very good English). But in normal Thai custom he has a nickname which is Rambo! So clearly we all laughed and love him! … He sang a LOT of karaoke.

Wednesday was a fairly quiet day, which was much needed. It was still very long because our trip to the hospital to get working papers signed took much longer than anticipated. Usually doctors just sign your papers and take the money but they actually took all our blood pressure, pulse, and weight and then we went into a separate room where we met with the doctor who listened to us breathe and then we were done. This process seems simple but when there are twelve of us who have to go through it, it takes a while. So then once again we had class after dinner.

Thursday we had our first Thai quiz! Ahh hahaha … it was our teacher Oa dictating words to us that we had to write in Thai! So crazy! But I only got 3 wrong out of 10 so I’d say that’s pretty good! And I am working really hard at learning basic vocabulary so I think I’ll be able to learn a lot very quickly, especially once I am working at my schools. Which brings me to the second thing we did today – school visits! In about 4 groups we went to each other’s schools and living accommodations. It was very exciting and very fun! I am working at 2 elementary schools – Choom Chon Nong Hee and Phon Tan. The latter is very small and has only about 55 students in the whole school. Nong Hee is a middle sized school with about 300 students. I will actually have 2 classrooms at Nong Hee which are side by side. One has desks and the other doesn’t. I am living with another girl in my group named Michelle at her high school. The house they are renovating for us is REALLY nice, especially by Thai standards. I do believe there is a western toilet but we didn’t really get to look around since they are working on it so I will update more with pictures at the end of the month when I actually move in. There are two teachers at that school that speak really good English as well so that is a nice comfort, though after today I am feeling confident with the language barrier and actually finding it quite fun to try to communicate with people and learn each other’s languages.

Ok so I know this is a VERY long entry but I promised to keep everyone informed and with unreliable Internet this is what we gotta do! Mai pen rai!