อ่าวนาง Ao Nang

Ao Nang... the name means "Princess Bay". It's a small beach town on Thailand's west coast, about forty minutes from Krabi by songtaew. The town itself is small and quiet, perfect for a getaway from the stress and bustle of Bangkok. I've traveled around a lot this year, but except for my weekend in Hua Hin, I haven't really had a vacation. My trips to Burma and Singapore were fun, but so packed full of sightseeing that I just felt exhausted afterwards, and going to Mae Sot is far from relaxing. I was at the beach just a few days ago, but that was as a chaperone, and I didn't even get to get in the water. 

Bangkok Michael is high-strung, busy, and work-oriented. Vacation Michael is relaxed and sabai. We haven't seen much of Vacation Michael this year! Going to the south was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the busy school year.

Though I've lived in Thailand for two years now, this was my first trip to the south. I haven't really traveled around the country as much as I would have liked to. Ao Nang, on the Andaman Sea, is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! From Krabi Province (where Ao Nang is), it's fairly simple to take a boat to some of Thailand's most famous beaches, Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi, or Phuket, among others.

Although the town is pretty touristy, with lots of hotels, upscale restaurants, and gift shops, the beach was really quiet, except for the sound of the longtail boats chugging along.

sunrise from my hotel

Everywhere I looked kind of felt like I was living inside a postcard. Though it was just three nights (including the one spent on the train), I feel super relaxed after coming back to Bangkok. I had some great fresh seafood, and I even tried dried squid, something that I've seen a lot of for sale, but really thought I would never eat. I hope to go back to the south sometime next year. I miss it already!

Night Train to Krabi

Well, I'm back from vacation. I had an amazing time in Krabi- my first time down in Thailand's far south.

I'll write about Krabi later, but first I want to talk about getting there. There are basically four ways to get around Thailand: 

1) You can take a minivan from Victory monument, but those only go to places within a few hours of Bangkok. 

2) You can take a bus, but that's not very comfortable after a few hours. The 12+ hours to Krabi would have been miserable. 

3) You can fly. It's not too expensive and it/s quick.

4) Or, you can take a train, which, while slightly slower than the bus, is by far the most comfortable way to travel.

That's what I did, and I learned some lessons about traveling along the way too. I booked a second-class sleeper in advance from Hua Lampong Station. When the train departed from Bangkok at 7:30 pm, the seats were still up, but around 9:00, an attendant came by to change the seats into comfortable bunks. They were clean and comfortable, and I slept soundly. 

When I woke up the next morning, I could tell that we were far away from Bangkok. The scenery had changed drastically, giving way to dense jungle and mountains.

We arrived in Chumphon the next morning at 7:00. Unfortunately, there is no direct railroad to Krabi, which meant that we had to take a 4-hour bus transfer that was included in the ticket. The bus was pretty uncomfortable, and I was very happy to finally arrive in Ao Nang Krabi, a quiet little beach town on the Andaman Sea.

I've come up with some guidelines that I think will make travel more comfortable for me in the future.

If the trip will be longer than five hours in a bus, I will either take the train or fly. If there is a direct railroad, I'll probably take the train, especially if I can get a sleeper bunk. That's great, because I can save on a night at a hotel too. I really don't like taking a bus transfer. It's not comfortable, and after taking a long train trip, I'm just ready to be wherever I'm going. If the trip will have too many transfers, I'd just rather fly. Incidentally, I had booked an airline ticket for the one-hour flight back to Bangkok, and it only cost about $40 USD more than the combined train/bus ticket.

Graduation Day

Graduation day has been and gone, and now I am officially on school holiday. If the school needs me now, too bad. So long, see ya in May. I'm off to Krabi and I'm totally in vacation mode! I've put in a lot of time and hard work this past month, and now I'm ready to relax.

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Just like last year, graduation was an all-day affair. The morning was spent hanging out in the office. I tidied up my desk and packed all my books away in the cabinet underneath. After lunch we were rounded up and herded down into the assembly hall. Kate and Kaylon, our teacher from the Vocational campus, were taken away to sit with the other new teachers, while James, Geoffrey, Ryan, and I were seated with the old teachers. Our seats were actually very good- row six!

Looking around the room, I was once again impressed with how elegant and well-dressed all the hi-society Thais are. The assembly hall was a sea of purple silk, and it seemed that all the elegant ladies were competing to see who could get the most volume out of their hair.

"Miss Courtesy's hair is looking especially big today", Ryan whispered to me. She's the one who trains the students on royal etiquette and protocol. That's not her real name, but that's Geoffrey's nickname for her, and that's how I've learned who she is.

It's true though. All the young ladies had their hair in tight braids on their heads, but the older women were actually defying gravity with their hairstyles, teachers and parents alike. I have no idea how much hairspray is used at a function like this, but I have to imagine that it certainly isn't helping the ozone hole any. I think that in Thailand, the volume of a lady's hair is an indicator of her social position, and Ryan swears they some of them put pads in their hair to make it look bigger.

As for us, Ryan, James, Geoffrey, and I wore our school blazers. This year we wore purple ties, and I was happy to get the chance to wear the lapel pin which the school had presented to me earlier in the year.

The ceremony began. There is a lot of ceremony that goes on at a function like this, and I didn't understand most of it. I was proud to be able to understand quite a lot of the awards though, and it was nice to see which of my students had won prizes and who had made the top GPA's of the year.

Afterwards, the important VIPs all dined together on the lawn. We teachers got boxed lunches and drinks served by M4 and M5 students. There was some Thai music as entertainment, and we wandered around a bit talking to students before retiring up to our office.

By around 7:30 it was all over. After everything was finished, my friends went to say goodbye to our department head and the head of academic affairs (the former department head). Then, with one last look around the office, we left. For my friends Ryan and Kate, it was the final goodbye. 

I love my job. I'm so happy to be staying on for a third year. But now it's vacation time.

End of the Year

Well, Year Two is over. It's been quite a year, and it's had its ups and downs. Overall though, it's been a good one, and I've learned a lot and grown as a teacher.

Last week our department went out for a farewell lunch for the teachers who will not be returning next year. It's going to be very different next year, because James and Ryan have been here with me since I first arrived. I'm now going on my third year. That's where James was when I first started teaching. If the school expects me to be as competent next year as James was when I started... I'm going from being the third-best of the four at Thai to the one who can speak the most (which is still very little). Anyway, the running joke is that I'm slowly turning into James and that I'm on my way to turning into the new Geoffrey.

James and I were clearly not ready for a photo

Next year won't be the same. The other night I had dinner with James and Nan, and he was telling me what I can expect from  my third year. I'm excited in a way, because I'll be the de facto leader of the ajarn farang, and I'll be able to give advice and make suggestions about what has and hasn't worked in the past. I'm not too excited about the extra responsibility though, although that's just part of the job. I'll be back in Texas in May to give an orientation meeting to the new teachers. I'm looking forward to meeting them. I hope that my new Mathayom colleagues will be good people and hard workers like the ones who I'll be losing this year.

I joke that every year I extend my contract, the school gives me a bolt of cloth as a gift. Last year the school gave me the material to make my official school blazer, and this year they gave me purple cloth to have a special uniform shirt made for the fifth cycle and the sixtieth anniversery. I've mentioned all that before. The official colors of the day have been put aside momentarily, and everyone is just wearing lots and lots of purple nowadays. You can notice it in the pictures of us at the farewell lunch. Over the weekend, one of the Thai teachers took me to a tailor to get measured. I'm excited about this, as it makes me feel more like a "real" teacher. Geoffrey and James have blue and pink uniform shirts that they wear occasionally, and even Grant, my predecessor, got a blue one.

On the last day at work, Geoffrey informed us that the new 60th anniversary school yearbook had been published. I never saw a yearbook from last year. The yearbooks work differently in Thailand. I'm not sure that every student gets one. As far as I know, each office gets a copy, and one copy stays in the library. But maybe I just don't understand how that works. We have had fun looking at old photos of Geoffrey and the ajarn farang from the 90's.

We went to Tip's office (the former head of english department and current head of Academic Affairs) to ask if we could look at the book and try to find pictures of ourselves. To our delight and surprise, she gave each of us a copy of the yearbook to keep! It's a great memento that I'll keep forever. The book is really nice, and I am happy that we Mathayom teachers are listed along with all the other English teachers. The yearbook even features the elusive and mysterious Mr Garnier, the other elderly British gentleman who is employed by the school but whom we have never actually met.

Senior Trip 2015: Phetchaburi

The year is over. Graduation rehearsal is tomorrow, and the graduation ceremony will be on Monday the 23rd. That means that it's just a short time now before I'm flying back to visit the USA.

Even though classes have been over since the end of February, it hasn't been just free time. There's still been a lot of work to do with lesson planning and preparing for next year, especially since I'm the only one of the foreign teachers (Geoffrey excluded) who is staying on for another year. I'm going to be responsible for teaching and training the new teachers next year. James and Ryan have helped me prepare as best as they can, but it's still a little overwhelming trying to get things ready by myself.

I've also been spending a lot of time studying and practicing Thai.

But nothing made this year seem so finalized like the M6 farewell trip. I went on the trip last year, and it was fun, although I didn't teach that grade, so I didn't really know the students. This year was different, because this year I taught M6 Writing class, and while it was one of the most challenging, it was also one of the most fun to teach.

On Tuesday morning we took a taxi to school early, loaded up onto big busses, and with our police escort (the royal school has its privileges), headed off to the beach. This year, due to our school's connections, we stayed at a really nice resort owned by the military for officers. It was right on the beach, and the accommodations were very comfortable.

Unfortunately James couldn't go with us this year, as he had to be at his university to do research for his thesis, so Ryan and I were left to navigate the Thai social situation independently, which can be a bit stressful. Luckily for us, Nan was there. As our friend James' wife, she was responsible for us by proxy and tell us what we should be doing and when.

Mostly, we relaxed and ate. After arriving, the students had several hours of free time before dinner to swim at the pool or go to the beach. As for us perpetually confused farangs, we spent our time making friendly mockery of the "inspirational" photos that the Thais spent so many hours taking on the beach.

I was flying 

After a seafood dinner, it was finally time for the big ceremony. First there was Thai dancing. When the music started, the students scrambled to get teachers as their partners. One of the girls from my writing class ran up to where I was sitting at the side of the room, kneeled, gave me a wai, and offered her hand. She told me that she had been accepted into the international program at her dream university because of my letter of recommendation! Wow! Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever really make a difference to the students, of if I'm just this weird, kind of amusing foreigner with novelty value. That made me feel really good! The Thai teachers already know Thai dance, of course, but our students had to show Ryan and I how to hold our hands and some very simple moves as Thai classical music played.

Then it was time for the string ceremony. The hotel didn't allow us to use real candles this year, so we had to use little fake ones, but it still looked cool. The students sat in a circle, and each teacher got a bundle of white bracelets, like the kind that monks give for blessings. We then went around the room tying bracelets around the wrists of special students and wishing them luck, giving them advice, and blessing them. It was really dark and kind of hard to find all the students who I wanted to say something to, but I did pretty well. As I gave them their bracelets, I asked about their college plans and told them something like, "Always do your best, no matter what, and never give up. I wish you all the best in university and in your life". Many of the students waid deeply, some all the way down to the ground, as if before a monk! 

Though I've only known class 45 for a short time (I didn't teach them last year), I've gotten to know my small class of fourteen students well. Saying goodbye in this way was really special, and I can only imagine how meaningful it must be for the students. After fifteen years together at school, they are about to go their separate ways. Graduation day will be the last time for all of them to be together as students.

Then, we all sang the school song. Ryan and I were very proud that we were able to follow along with the words in the program, even if we didn't know what they meant! At least we were able to read and pronounce them. It's been about a month since the students have been in school, so after the headmistress said a few words, one of the teachers got up and lectured the students about the importance of following dress code at graduation. Many of the boys will need to get haircuts.

Last, a few students had magnets with the words "Class 45", and were instructed to give them to the teachers. Another student who had asked me for a letter of recommendation ran over to give me one. I'll miss class 45. Good luck to them!

The New Curriculum

Well... I'll readily admit that the textbook series James, Ryan, and I picked out for our Listening and Speaking classes was a bust.

When I first arrived at the school nearly two years ago, I was terribly ill-prepared for my classes. The orientation meeting held at Baylor before I left was given by two former teachers, one who had worked at Prathom (primary school) and the other who worked at Wischawship (vocational campus). They had informed us not to worry too much about our lessons in advance because we would have a Thai counterpart in the classroom at all times who would plan the lessons. Our job would be to help with pronunciation and basically act as a work horse when it came to grading, making worksheets, etc. It turns out that this is more or less true at Prathom, but Mathayom is an entirely different story.

I was not prepared for the fact that at Mathayom we were actually going to be "real" teachers. The classes are our own. We do not have a counterpart. We are entirely responsible for keeping our classes on track with our own curriculum. For the first two or three weeks this was a stressful awakening, as I hadn't been prepared for this, but as my confdence as a teacher grew, and as I saw the teachers at Prathom becoming more and more frustrated with the limitations and restrictions of being "assistant teachers", I came to appreciate the freedom that we have at Mathayom to run our classes entirely as we like, particularly our listening/speaking classes. We have pretty much no oversight; as long as we get our grades and exams submitted on time, we can teach these classes however we want.

After the term holiday, we decided to reevaluate our curriculum entirely. We got rid of the textbooks that we had chosen and began to teach more culturally relevant topics. The first quarter was easy because most of our major holidays fell during that time.

In the second quarter, we focused on storytelling with the lower grades, and on current events with our M4 class. The big final project for the semester was to create a newscast about goings-on at the school. Of course, in the interest of fairness, we teachers made our own as an example and had way too much fun doing so. In the end, it kind of turned into a three-minute passive-aggresive newscast about how bad our office computer is (we've been trying to get a new one forever), and we had a blast.

I hope that we can continue to go off-book next year as well. Hopefully the bosses are okay with that. Until we submit our lesson plan comments in a few weeks, I'm not sure they are even aware that we've scrapped the book yet. My plan is to utilize the month of March between mark checks and graduation to write the listening/speaking curriculum for all the grades for next year to make the new teachers' transition to teaching a bit easier for them. After all, I had a book and a teacher's manual for the book when I arrived. They will be coming in with nothing to go on. I really hope that this works out!

Speaking of mark checks... they are by far the most tedious this I do as a teacher. I won't bore you with the details again, just know that it's two days of us teachers checking each other's math to make sure that we calculated the grades correctly. The first day is departmental mark checks, which aren't too bad, because we can correct any mistakes in our office. The next day is school-wide mark checks day, when we meet in the teacher lunchroom and check other department's blue books.

A few weeks ago we had departmental checks, but I had to go out to the travel agent to book my flight home. Feeling guilty about leaving so many blue books for my colleagues to take care of, I offered to take five home with me for the holiday... that Wednesday was Maka Bucha Day, some sort of Buddhist holiday... so there was no school. I took my marks to a coffee shop and tried to get them taken care of as quickly as possible.

Last week, Ryan, James, and I finally got to go out with the Thai teachers to the textbook store to look for new textbooks. We ended up with a pretty ambitious series- it's totally about pronunciation, so it'll be just used as a guide for our class, leaving us with lots of room to incorporate our own cultural lessons and themed topics. It will mean lots more planning and outside work rather than just following the book as we did my first semester, but in the end I think it'll be better for both the students and for us teachers.

Learning Thai III: The Farbemeister Method

I've been a little bit lazy about learning Thai this year, I'll admit, but with James and Ryan leaving Thailand at the end of this year, I'll go from the third-best at Thai to the only foreigner who can read Thai in our office. That kind of feels like a lot of pressure, because while my reading is actually not bad, my speaking leaves a lot to be desired.

Over the course of the past year, my colleague Ryan developed a color-coded method for working out the tone-rules for Thai. Thai tones have been a real challenge for me, and to tell you the truth, I kind of skipped those sections in my book that explained them. Over the last week, Ryan gave me a color-coded chart about how to work out what tone a syllable follows, and while it's still confusing, the color chart actually makes it a lot more clear.

This week Ryan gave me my own set of colored pens and highlighters so that I can follow in his footsteps and become the new farbemeister ("color master" in German). I'm hoping that this will help me develop my Thai as quickly as he has his. I'm still working on Thai for Beginners, and he's halfway through Thai for Intermediate Learners. My goal is to finish Beginners, the "orange book", over the school break and move on to Intermediate, the "purple book", at the start of the next term.

I'm really proud by how well my written Thai has developed this year. I can now write pretty well, and I'm very happy that with the exception of a few very complicated vowels, I can read and pronounce Thai decently. My reading is better than my written Thai, which is much better than my spoken Thai. I'll need to work on improving my conversational Thai next year.

The Giant Tree

On the way back from Mae Sot we stopped at a national park in the mountains. It was pretty ordinary, except for the famous "giant tree", a 700-year-old Krabach tree. There was a trail leading to the tree, a 400-meter walk. 400 meters- that's like a quarter of a mile! Ryan and I are both in decent shape. How hard could it be?

deep in the jungle

It turned out the walk was almost straight down a very steep and uneven path. By the time we got to the "sacred grove", my knees were really hurting, and we were both sweating pretty profusely in the tropical heat. I got concerned about ascending back to where Geoffrey was wisely waiting in the air-conditioned car.

It was cool though. The cacophony of the jungle around us was amazingly loud!

The tree itself was pretty fantastic; 16 meters in circumference and 50 meters high! Just think: when this tree sprouted from the ground, Geoffrey Chaucer was writing The Canterbury Tales!

We had to stop three times on the climb back to catch our breath, and Geoffrey seemed legitimately concerned for our health when we returned to the car red-faced and winded and collapsed in the back seat. I've got to get in shape...

Back on the road, we too our traditional stop at Khao No to see Geoffrey's favorite monkeys.

action shot

Our last stop was for lunch at the outlets in Ayutthaya. There is a B60 shop there, and I picked up several purple ties. I've been told by the head of the English department that it's very possible that we will be asked to wear purple every day next year. It's not definite. I like purple, but every day is a little much. I am hoping that the powers-at-be change their minds and shorten the time.

The Border Temple

Our last stop before an amazing dinner at The Canadian was the big temple in Mae Sot. Not far from the border, it's actually a Burmese-style temple, and not a Thai one. Many (but not all) of the monks wore crimson Burmese robes instead of the saffron-colored robes of the Thai monks, and the architecture was definitely Burmese, not Thai.

Being so close to the border, a lot of culture spills over. It seems that this temple may have served some of the Burmese refugee community in Mae Sot. The temple was really beautiful, shiny and golden, and elaborately decorated.

One interesting thing about Burmese Buddhist statues are that they have skin color instead of being uniformly golden like in Thai temples. Though both variants of Theravada Buddhism, the style is noticably different.

In a place of honor near the center of the temple compound was a mini recreation of the Schwedagon Pagoda. Seeing this made me think about planning a return trip to Burma. I don't know what it is, but there is something about how difficult and mysterious the country is that appeals to me. Something about it being closed off to foreigners for so long that makes me really curious about what else the country has to offer, and how I should try to see it before the tourists arrive en masse,

Mae Sot IV: Trashnado 2015

Standing in the hot sun, we looked out over the Mae Sot dump site.

"Unbelievable how people can live like this!" Geoffrey mumbled. It was my fourth time to Mae Sot, my colleague, Ryan's first time, and Geoffrey had been there countless times before. Still, the dump site village is a sight that you can never really get used to. I was surprised to see a brand-new Thai flag flying proudly over the dumpsite. I hadn't seen that before. It's amazing that the people seem grateful to be here in Thailand. It really makes me wonder what their life in Burma was like, that this is the preferable alternative.

Just then the wind began picking up. I was the first to notice that something strange was happening about 100 feet ahead.

A twister coming right for us!

It wasn't a big one, just some cardboard, paper, and plastic bags spinning overhead. It passed right over us, the wind hitting us a bit harder than before, and bits of rubbish spiraling around us. Then, it was gone. We dubbed it "Trashnado 2015."

Geoffrey, Ryan, and I had decided to skip work on Friday and drive to Mae Sot. It's lucky that we did, because it was the last day of final exams for the students at Sky Blue School, and we almost missed them. This time, Geoffrey brought a trunk-full (or a "boot-full") of shirts and some notebooks to donate. He gave us a bag of candy to pass around to the students.

One thing that has amazed me every time I've come to Mae Sot is how genuinely happy these kids seem. They live in a hopeless situation that I can't even imagine- refugees from their home (Burma), exiled to landfill with no money, no citizenship, and little chance of escaping the cycle... and yet the kids can run around, play, laugh, and smile.

I got a bit grumpy on my first trip to Mae Sot (but let's blame that on the Dengue...) when my shoes got ruined in the muddy landfill. Then I thought, "what right do I have to be upset when these kids can smile?" It's a lesson that I will always remember.

After a visit to the school and the dumpsite, it was lunchtime. We had been driving all morning, and except for a short stop for breakfast, had been on the go since before 5am. We took lunch at the Tesco Lotus food court, then headed out for some sightseeing.

The first stop was a hot spring resort. The water was way too hot to get in, but they had steam rooms you could rent. We just walked around and relaxed in the shade by a bubbling pool. The air up north in the countryside is so clean and fresh, and it was very quiet; such a nice break from the constant rush and pollution of Bangkok.

Next up, a stop as a national park to visit some waterfalls.

Sadly, "KFC" was closed for some sort of holiday. Instead, we went to another restaurant in town, a pub called "The Canadian", owned, appropriately enough, by a Canadian. The menu there was incredible! There must have been hundreds of menu items for such a small restaurant. I've talked many times before about how much I love breakfast food and how hard it is to get here. The Canadian had an all-day breakfast menu, and I was in heaven. I ordered a platter; bacon, sausage, fried eggs, fried potatoes, toast with jam, and baked beans. I don't regret it. I've dreamt about it since.

The Snake Farm

My Dutch friends from Mae Sot are flying back to the Netherlands this week for the next seven months. They spent the last week in Bangkok, so on Sunday, my boss Geoffrey and I met them for lunch at Central Chidlom Food Loft, Geoffrey's favorite restaurant. It's where he takes all the new teachers the first weekend after the arrive in Thailand, and it's incidentally where I took my family for their first dinner in Bangkok.

But I was up early on Sunday morning, so I decided to head downtown to Christchurch for the 7:30 service. After breakfast at the church and coffee at Cafe D'Oro, there were still a few hours before we were supposed to meet Martien and Gerda. To pass the time, Geoffrey and I decided to head over to the Bangkok Snake Farm.

Thai Red Cross HQ

I've never been overly fond of snakes, but I'm at the same time fascinated by them. The Snake Farm is based at Thai Red Cross HQ, and is the biggest antivenin research and production facility in southeast Asia.

Geoffrey antagonizing a king cobra

We got there just in time to watch the morning show. Parts of the show made me super nervous to watch, because all of the snakes they show are extremely venomous; they all have their venom glands and fangs, because they are milked of their venom at this facility in order to produce the antivenin. At one point, one handler tried to manage two cobras, while another calmly told facts about the snakes.

two cobras at the snake show

I've been lucky not to have run into these snakes, which the handlers told us live in Bangkok. Suzie, who works in my office, told us that twice she's found highly venomous green vipers in her flower garden in Bangkok, and that the province just north of her home has been having trouble with cobras recently. That's just part of living in the tropics though. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that they are constantly researching and producing so much antivenin here in Bangkok.

a deadly green viper

Of course, you've got to take the classic Burmese python photo. Surely this was one of the best pictures taken at the Snake Farm:

one of my finer moments