Wat a Day!

Actually three Wats to be precise. This past Sunday, a few friends and I decided to head over to the local bus station and take a bus anywhere. We had originally wanted to go somewhere specific, woke up at 5:30 a.m. so we could have a full day, only to get to the bus station and discover that the bus doesn't leave until 1 p.m. So we took the next bus leaving the station, which happened to be to Phayao. Phayao is about 3 hours northeast of Chiang Mai. It's a beautiful, small town next to a big lake. We hired four guys to drive us around for the day, so we got to see the whole city. The main attractions are three Wats within the city. One is in the middle of a lake, another is on the shore of the lake, and the third is in the mountains overlooking the city. It was a lot of fun, and definitely worth the trip. Below is a link for the pictures.

Phayao Pictures

What's in a name?

Sorry for the delay in posts. Now that school is in full swing, I've been in teacher mode or trying to go out and do things in the city. So the blog has been a tad neglected. But I had some down time and thought I would share one of the stranger things I've experienced thus far at the school itself, Thai names. Thais have very long, complex official names. Nearly everyone, therefore, has a nickname they generally go by. Naturally, I've had to learn the nicknames of my students. When I first went around with a seating chart trying to fill in everyone's name, I discovered that nicknames in Thailand are not quite like nicknames in the US. If your name is Christopher, you might go by Chris. I'm sure you all know what a nickname is. But here, nicknames are completely arbitrary and totally strange. I have students named Beer, Porn, Snooker, and Benz (yes, like the car). I play basketball with people named Golf and Cartoon. Obviously, they know what these words are. I doubt that whoever gave them their nickname randomly assembled these letters unknowingly. What I don't understand is the choice for the nicknames. But, that's Thailand, gotta love it. I posted one seating chart below, complete with nicknames, so that you can experience it all for yourself. Enjoy.

Loy Krathong, part 2

As I said before, the pictures are much different than the actual experience. I shot this video to try and capture what it was really like. The quality is pretty bad, but you can get the gist of it.

Loy Krathong

This will just be a short post, because words do not do this festival justice. I just experienced Loy Krathong two nights ago. Let me just say, wow. It's almost as if they combined the explosiveness of New Year's with the drunken debauchery of Halloween. The festival itself has very serene, peaceful origins. The Krathong, or small floaty thing as it is technically referred to, is meant to symbolize a person letting go of the bad parts of themselves - grudges, anger, past wrongdoings, etc. For all the Jews out there, a little like Tashlich, but instead of food, they make small rafts. For all you Catholics out there, a little like....well I think Catholics hang on to that for a while. Anyway, the origins are very peaceful, but the celebration consists of people getting very drunk and setting off large amounts of fireworks within a very close proximity of one another. I'm not just talking Roman Candles, either. I'm talking about blow-off-your-finger and lose-your-hearing fireworks. So there are fireworks going off literally all around you, people are releasing these krathongs, and they are also letting Khom Fai go into the air. Khom Fai are like miniature hot air ballons, and they have a similar purpose to the Krathongs. So the night sky is filled with fireworks and thousands of Khom Fai floating away, people are all around you setting off fireworks, sparklers, small clay explosives, and on and on. The pictures (which you can see here) are quite calm, but the experience is actually very loud and not calm. Still, all in all, a very worthwhile experience for anyone to see. Also, if you're interested in learning more about Loy Krathong, here is the link to its Wikipedia page.

Teacher Josh!

I had wanted to post something sooner, but the week flew by before I knew it. The first week of school is in the bag, and I can already tell it is going to be quite the experience. I spent the week seeing how the school ran, shadowing the teacher I am replacing, seeing how he ran the classroom, what the students are learning, etc, etc. I am teaching fourth grade, and as you would expect, the kids are hilarious. Things at Dara are quite different than any school I have experienced, as a student or teacher.

To start with, all the students seem to have freedom throughout the entire campus. From the youngest age to the oldest, students can walk around, sit outside, leave class, or do whatever else they want. They are not required to stay in the class. If a kid needs a break, he just asks the teacher to leave, and goes and does his thing. It threw me at the beginning, but I am coming around to the idea. It cuts down on the number of behavior issues in the class because if a kid is bored, he just leaves.

Classes also begin and end much differently here than in the west. At the beginning of each class, when the teacher comes in the room, the entire class stands up and addresses the teacher. At the end of each lesson, they thank the teacher in the same way. Very strange. But beyond those two moments, the kids are non stop energy, asking tons of questions, and struggling to learn English.

They call me Teacher Josh (though they have trouble pronouncing the sh, so sometimes I am teacher John) and they are very curious about where I am from, how old am I, how much I weigh, and any other question they can say in English. At this point, they are learning shapes, colors, prepositions (in, on, next to) and other basic stuff.

One of the funniest things for me is that all the kids have nicknames because their Thai names are so long. So I have kids in my class named Snooker, Cartoon, Benz, Bambi. I don't know if they gave themselves nicknames, or if someone gave it to them. My goal is to have them give me a Thai nickname.

That's it for now. I will try and update this more with stories than just describing what I am doing, but that requires a lot more effort. So we'll see if it works out. Happy Halloween!