dat Thai Life

K̄ĥāw p̄hạd kai dao - Fried rice and egg.

First off, this is the second time writing this, as my previous post did not upload for some reason.

Chaiyaphum has been a trip so far.  Although I have only been here a few weeks, it feels as if I have been here forever.  I am extremely happy I switched placement agencies and feel I am in a much better place in life because of it.

I have been working at Satri Chaiyaphum, teaching Matyumum 2, which is secondary, mostly girls school, at a level 2, equivalent to 8^th grade in America.  I teach 20, 50 minute classes a week and also take part of English club as part of a farong (foreigner) requirement.

I teach different levels of M2 as well as IEP/Basic- grammar based classes (I have 2 classes with IEP of which I both see 5 times a week each) and ECD- listening and speaking based.  My students are most definitely a handful, but I do enjoy the challenge of teaching them.  I only see my ECD students once a week so it can be difficult to get lessons in with them, but I'm slowly getting the grove of this teaching thing.

My M2/1 class. "Teacha, Teacha, picta, picta!!"

Weekends have been filled with pop-up markets, wandering, and the night market-one of Chaiyaphum's most visited tourist attraction (according to Google).  Everything is pretty affordable- I especially enjoy the fact I can get a meal for 30 Baht, .90 cents.  Needless to say, I'm getting very well fed.  I haven't gone running yet, because it can be difficult with all the stray dogs chasing you and it's hot, but I'll get around to it.  There's even a free gym around here somewhere.  

This past weekend some of the English teachers in my building, Val, who works at the primary school down the street from mine, and Alison, who works at my school walked down the street to the second hand market –holy crap galore.  I managed to get 2 skirts and a blouse for a little under 100 Baht –about $3 USD, I love Thailand.

Second hand market galore! Myself, Val, and Alison-teachers weekend shopping trip

Sunday my friends Val, Sam, and I drove to Tattone Waterfalls, about 30 minutes away on the motorbike.  I was supposed to be following Sam and Val on Sam’s motorbike, (yes, I have a motorbike, it’s blue and pretty and matches my orange helmet.  Almost everyone here has a motorbike, you kind of need one to get around town and go anywhere.  I also found out I like driving motorbikes, who knew, because I always swore I'd never get one...) but Sam decided to drive like a bat out of Hell, so I lost them and got lost trying to get there.  2 hours and a beautiful drive later, I finally arrived, and just as soon slipped and fell on my butt on a flat, dry surface near the waterfall—In true Marissa fashion.  And yes, everyone saw.  As they say in Thailand, Mai Pen Rai- the Hakuna Matata of Thais, meaning no worries, or eh whatevs. 

We went on one of the nice last days for the waterfall before it dries up.  Although Tattone Waterfalls is no Multnomah Falls (Portland friends and loved ones, you will completely agree with me on this one), the drive and experience was just as beautiful.  

Val, Sam, and myself

Tadttone Waterfalls, Chaiyaphum

Chaiyaphum

Life happens and situations change.  I have switched placement agencies in Thailand and am no longer in the south. I wasn't getting the best guidence or placement I was promised so I decided to switch to another company, for the better. I flew to Bangkok, had a brief orientation, and the next day I was off on a short 5 hour bus ride to Chaiyaphum where I will be teaching English  to the primary level.
When I got to my apartment, it was brand new. Nothing made me feel better than to finally be able to unpack and settle into my new home.

Even better, I got to decorate my fridge with love from home. 

 Yesterday, Monday was my first class. I taught 3 classes yesterday and will be teaching 5 today. I'll be teaching 20 classes a week, which will take a while to get used to as there are like 10-15 different class types with different learning levels. So far everyone is incredibly nice and helpful.  I wasn't exactly sure where my school was yesterday, so the lady who owns the restaurant below my apartment drove me to school on her scooter.

I also got a ride home from another foreign English teacher at my school. Thailand really does have the nicest people. 

Last night, I met the two other foreign teachers in my building, and they work at the primary schools down the street (I'm at the Secondary school, Satri).  

There are a bunch of farang  (foreigners) in Chaiyaphum, which is exactly what I wanted.

I'm sitting at my office desk as I have my first two periods of the day classless, trying to put together lesson plans and remember how I was taught in elementary school. Even though these girls are in high school, they still speak English at at lower level - which is to be expected as this is a foreign language to them. All I can say is, thank you to my fabulous teachers at Vienna Elementary. Fairfax County Public Schools has truly prepared me for this.

Koh Samui and Tha Sala

Koh Samui has been a trip since day one. I forgot to add a couple things, so instea of editing my blog, I'm making a new one, deal. :)

 I forgot to add this photo, curiosity of Martin, from our taxi ride from the ferry to our first hostel. In the front is Cherry and Martin, followed by Siobhan, myself, Loo (our placement's son), with Illandra and Carl in the way back. We were so beat from our long trip from Bangkok, we slept the way there. I swear we do more than eat and sleep...maybe. 

After we all got settled in, we walked around and found the night market, even better, food. 

Again, I stole Martin's picture. 

I got pad thai and a coconut shake, but are we really surprised? My favorite dish!

Fast forward past the elephant ride, Big Boodah and our 5/6 day stay in Samui....

Koh Samui, an island of Thailand has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life. On our last day in Koh Samui, we soaked up the sun and bought coconuts from a super sweet lady walking up and down the beach with buckets of food. It was super hot, so we were one water the majority of the time before heading to Nakhon Si Thammarat the next day. We got a nice surprise, one of our friends from Bangkok decided to join us in Samui for a few days. 

Sonia and I (thanks Martin!) on the rooftop of our hotel on our last night. 

Districts of Nakhon Si Thammarat. We got off the ferry, got in a van and ended up in Tha Sala, wanting to get to Nakhon early, so we could get settled in before placement at our schools. 

While we are in a little bit of a rural area, it's not nearly as bad or too rural as some villages I've seen around vietnam, Cambodia, Mocronesia, even Hawaii. We have hot water and air conditioning in our hotel, so it's not bad at all. 

The only downside is, on our first day, we only found one restaurant, and no vegitarian ("jay" in thai) options. For the first time in 5 years, I ate a little crab. It upset my stomach, but when you're hungry, you eat. 

Dim Sum with egg scrambled with some crab on top of tofu. 

Afterwards, we walked around and a couple miles later, found a Tesco, pretty much a Walmart of the area. Yesterday, Martin and I found a shortcut which knocked a good couple miles off, lazy people life!! 

I found out I will be teaching in Sichon, a district right above where I am currently in, making it easy to get to my new destination. I'm starting on November 10th, so I'm anxiously awaiting my acommendations to be ready. Not sure yet what grade, guess I'll find out when I start, all part of the adventure! 

I leave y'all with an adorable picture of a butterfly that landed on my hand.