Hello, สวัสดี (Sa wa dii), Hola

So after a long week of teaching (lies) … someone needs to unwind a bit, right? Well for starters it was not a long week of teaching since I didn’t teach Wednesday and on Friday afternoon none of my students showed up because they were all at a ‘meeting’ (ie. They all sit in the pavilion with one of the teachers talking about god knows what). So what did Kerry do? Enjoyed her high speed internet in her classroom for 2 hours … duh. In any case I get home around 4pm and head to the big Friday night market with Michelle and two teachers from her school to get some produce for the week and the most delicious Thai version of a rotisserie chicken … its basically my new favorite thing! When we get back from the market I get a call from the one teacher at PhonTan reminding me that we were going out to dinner and ‘dancing’ … ok, I haven’t spent any time with these teachers outside of school yet, this will be nice. So they pick me up and on the way they ask me if “I can drink beer”, I reply that I can which prompts excited giggles and clapping, awesome. We get to dinner, drink beer, eat, and I’m thinking this is going to be a quick early night … well was I WRONG. After dinner I am told we are going to a pub … ok I can handle that and I’m thinking it’s a karaoke bar since they were talking about singing and Thai people love karaoke … wrong again. We show up at a place called the “New Dankanhung Pub” which has crazy flashing lights, a stage, and a few raised platforms with poles. Ok Thailand. The band starts playing which is just amusing since there are 4 singers that rotate through and one of them we can’t figure out if it’s a girl or ladyboy and the people start filling up. We are having a good time and all the sudden the band takes a break and everyone’s attention is suddenly on the 3 scantily clad pole dancers! Hahahaha later in the evening as I was leaving the bathroom one of the pole dancers was very insistent on talking with me and knowing my name, etc. so now we friends. Hahaha

Saturday was our WorldTeach potluck Thanksgiving dinner, which turned out to be extremely close to the real thing! We got a pre-cooked Turkey and people made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans, broccoli, salad, biscuits, pumpkin cookies, stewed apples, cole slaw, and fruit salad. Rambo came and instead of bringing a simple small ice bucket has an entire restaurant size cooler and 4 cases of Leo beer … woah Rambo. Spending time with the group was a good time as always.

Sunday is where the real fun begins. It starts with Michelle and I having to take a sawng-tao 30 minutes into Nakhon Phanom to then get on the one that goes the 50 minutes to our village. All well and good. We get back with time to rest and shower and eat because Ajan Sumet and Earm pick us up to learn how to ‘shoot guns’. WHAD-UPPPP … we drive to the shooting range and all the guns get unloaded. There was another farang there, from England, so we chatted with him for a bit. Then came the fun. First a short photo shoot with the group and separate and the shooting! I shot a 9mm, .45, and a 22 semi-automatic.





A quick gem from my man Ajan Sumet, "Thai people, they like (counting on his fingers) Arnold Schwarzenagger, we call him iron man ... Stalone ... sylvester ... rambo, and (long pause) Michael Jackson."

Over and out from "Teacher Army"