Forgot to upload this, but once i get my computer i should be able to make a littlemore steady of account of the time spent at Asian University.
The kids are really fun, though somewhat spoiled (since this camp is more than 8x's what a "typical" thai makes in a month) but they are still good kids...
They are just nervous about speaking, and shy, but once you get them having fun they're like any other. Teaching them is fun, since half the time it is me running around like a fool trying to get them to understand what I am asking them to do, or get them interested in learning the language to be learned. We get to do lots of projects and art stuff to help, and break up long days teaching. We have AC rooms and access to materials, and they provide a book for a baseline. It's fun.
they have weekly BBQ dance nights, in which we theme up and dance outside (sweating horribly,as it's probably still in the 80's at night) and that's fun.
Started to get into the groove of things,so not much to report... just trying to have fun and teach at the same time, and go out to the islands or on fun dance nights when we are allowed off campus to have fun.
all is well, good talking with everyone on Easter! The cruise is only a couple monthsaway!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Chaing Mai
So we got to Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand. We did one day of walking around the city, taking it all in. It is a big city without the mess and chaos of Bangkok. It's nice. The old part of the city is surrounded by a moat, and that is where most of the life is.
We decided to take a Thai cooking class, where we can now say, proudly, we are certified to cook Thai food! We did a full day class, where you start with a market tour, letting us see all the materials we will be using late in the day. We then went to our chef's house where there were individual stations for all 8 of us, with utensils and everything. We learned how to make 7 dishes. It was great. We all did very well and stuffed our faces with curries, pad thai's soups, spring rolls, sticky rice and mango, papaya salad, etc. One part, the "adventure cooking part" we even learned how to make a huge fireball explode from the pan. it was a very very good day. at the end we got a recipe book to be able to cook for everyone when we get home.
The following day we decided to do a 3 day 2 night Hill Tribe trek into the mountains. This was an awesome experience. We started by doing a vigerous uphill hike, and then down a long long road into a valley (actually we started at a little waterfall and lunch...) The first tribe was about 28 families, and they live nestled in a valley. All the houses have their own rice paddies and livestock tied up right below their house. Literally you can hear the cows and buffalo sitting under you as you sleep. They made us a great dinner of curry and vegetables. We got to walk around the village and see daily life, and go to a small church. The next day we did a 3-4 hour hike through more paddies and hills before coming to an elephant camp. We got to ride the elephants for about an hour, half the time we got to sit on their heads. We then treked into the next village and got to play games and hang out with a bunch of kids while some people played soccer. The shower situation was interesting. the first place had a large piece of bamboo shooting out from the rocks above in the stream so you could stand under the "shower" in the river to clean up. The second shower was just getting in the river and washing off. The third day we woke up and boarded our bamboo rafts, that are made by hand by tying together bamboo (very simple) and standing on them and using long bamboo poles to navigate the river. We spend about 4 hours rafting down the river, which was calm at points, and small rapids at others. It was overall a really really great three days.
The following day we took it easy and walked around the city again, checking out the temples and wats. We saw a teak wat, and old ruined wat, and even at one wat got to sit and talk to a monk, who is 22 yrs old, and finishing up his last two years of schooling. We learned all about a monks life and what he wanted to do once he had finished school. Quite the lifestyle.
Today, March 5th, we took a local bus 4 hours north to a city called Chiang Rai. We checked in and are about to see what there is to do around here for the next day or so, then we head to bangkok for the weekend. We will sadly be saying bye to my friend Dave from school who has been traveling with us for the past 6 weeks. He's on his way to south africa. Then I move into school on the 12th, and start teaching officially on the 15th. Talk to everyone soon!
We decided to take a Thai cooking class, where we can now say, proudly, we are certified to cook Thai food! We did a full day class, where you start with a market tour, letting us see all the materials we will be using late in the day. We then went to our chef's house where there were individual stations for all 8 of us, with utensils and everything. We learned how to make 7 dishes. It was great. We all did very well and stuffed our faces with curries, pad thai's soups, spring rolls, sticky rice and mango, papaya salad, etc. One part, the "adventure cooking part" we even learned how to make a huge fireball explode from the pan. it was a very very good day. at the end we got a recipe book to be able to cook for everyone when we get home.
The following day we decided to do a 3 day 2 night Hill Tribe trek into the mountains. This was an awesome experience. We started by doing a vigerous uphill hike, and then down a long long road into a valley (actually we started at a little waterfall and lunch...) The first tribe was about 28 families, and they live nestled in a valley. All the houses have their own rice paddies and livestock tied up right below their house. Literally you can hear the cows and buffalo sitting under you as you sleep. They made us a great dinner of curry and vegetables. We got to walk around the village and see daily life, and go to a small church. The next day we did a 3-4 hour hike through more paddies and hills before coming to an elephant camp. We got to ride the elephants for about an hour, half the time we got to sit on their heads. We then treked into the next village and got to play games and hang out with a bunch of kids while some people played soccer. The shower situation was interesting. the first place had a large piece of bamboo shooting out from the rocks above in the stream so you could stand under the "shower" in the river to clean up. The second shower was just getting in the river and washing off. The third day we woke up and boarded our bamboo rafts, that are made by hand by tying together bamboo (very simple) and standing on them and using long bamboo poles to navigate the river. We spend about 4 hours rafting down the river, which was calm at points, and small rapids at others. It was overall a really really great three days.
The following day we took it easy and walked around the city again, checking out the temples and wats. We saw a teak wat, and old ruined wat, and even at one wat got to sit and talk to a monk, who is 22 yrs old, and finishing up his last two years of schooling. We learned all about a monks life and what he wanted to do once he had finished school. Quite the lifestyle.
Today, March 5th, we took a local bus 4 hours north to a city called Chiang Rai. We checked in and are about to see what there is to do around here for the next day or so, then we head to bangkok for the weekend. We will sadly be saying bye to my friend Dave from school who has been traveling with us for the past 6 weeks. He's on his way to south africa. Then I move into school on the 12th, and start teaching officially on the 15th. Talk to everyone soon!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Back to the "Motherland"
Well, i am back in Thailand, thank god. Vietnam was fun, but I am very excited to be back in Thailand, where the food is better, the noise is less and we speak the language a little bit more. It's amazing how much better received you are when you can do simple transactions in Thai.
We flew from Hanoi, Vietnam to Bangkok and then took a night train that evening up to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. It's the second largest city in Thailand. It's .... ohh no! i need to go eat lunch. ill update this later!
We flew from Hanoi, Vietnam to Bangkok and then took a night train that evening up to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. It's the second largest city in Thailand. It's .... ohh no! i need to go eat lunch. ill update this later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)