"Jumbo? You mean Dumbo."

We got Thursday of a couple weeks ago. Yahooooo! The school held a district meeting and since everyone would be speaking in Thai, the staff figured we shouldn't have to come. So J came up with the brilliant idea of going to the elephant conservatory just outside of Lampang!

We watched a show where the elephants walk around and bow, do a couple tricks and then they painted pictures (that was the coolest part). Afterwards we took an elephant ride through the jungle and it was beauuuuutiful! (minus the gigantic, thick, hairy spider that flew down onto my arm. . .small price to pay though). Within the conservatory there's a hospital where they bring in injured elephants. The whole place is known for one of the few places that takes great care of the elephants.

Here are some pics. . .

Big Man on Campus

So here's one of my stories from school. . .

On the first day there were 5 English teachers, including J and me, who, by the request of our department head, went to meet the big Director of the school...the Head Hancho, the Big Kahuna, the Grande Enchilaaaaada. We walked into his huge fancy office with his big leather sofa, flat screen tv (first I've seen in Thailand), and huge windows. He barely looked at us from behind his desk while we sat down behind this huge fruit basket that we brought as a gift, unacknowledged by him.

We waited patiently with big smiles on our faces, sitting up nice and tall in our stupid nun outfits, "wai"-ing to him and saying "sawadeeka" (hello in Thai). Before you know it, 5 minutes pass and there hasn't been one word spoken. Meanwhile, my tongue is about to fall off from biting it so hard because I am sitting through the most awkward 5 minutes of my life. You literally could have heard a pin drop. The whole time the director was signing pages, one-by-one out of this huge portfolio. He got to the last page, closed the folder and the teachers and I took a sigh of relief for this awkward silence to break. And what does the guy do. . .he picks up another huge folder and starts signing away.

I thought I was going to lose it. There was just too much silence and tension for one girl to handle. The five of us sat on the couch completely avoiding eye contact with one another. Unfortunately J and I were next to eachother and she knows me to well so the second my shoulders started shaking from trying to hold in my laughter, she started having to fight off the urge to burst out laughing too.

He finally sat down in front of us and read a speech that his secretary wrote for him while he held the paper up in front of his face. Still so awkward. Then he slid back in his chair, leaned to one side and asked us how many YEARS we've been in Thailand (we all say "about 1 month". . .he's not impressed). Then he waved his hand out and said "speak Thai" (all of us can only say "hello" and "thank you" in Thai. . .again, he's not impressed). Then he leaned back in his chair even further and just staaaaaaaared at us. Then we lost it.

As my mom calls it, I got the "church pew giggles" when you're not supposed to be laughing, so it makes you laugh even harder. Luckily we were all able to muster out something about "being really happy to teach at the school", as an attempt to cover up our giggling. He eventually just said ok, waved his hand at the door for us to leave, muttered some sort of "thank you for the fruit" and we were finally free.

It was one of those times we wish you all could have been flies on the wall to witness it. . .or we just wish WE were the flies on the wall so we wouldn't have had to sit through it.

Bon appetite!

So some of you have been asking to hear about how my first week of teaching went. I have so many stories it’s unbelievable. Hooooowever, right now I’m just going to give you a quick preview of what it’s like, because I’m sure the stories will continue to occur over the next few months. And also because we had so much fun this morning going to our own private cooking class and I want to talk about that instead:)

So here’s a few things about teaching. . .my kids don’t speak ANY English, there isn’t any other help in the class (like I said, each class has about 50 kids and lasts for an hour), I walk in to most of my classes as about 6 boys are fist fighting in the back, and to keep their attention I have to act, and sing, and dance all around the classroom. So to sum it up. . .it’s nuts! BUT, the kids (when they’re not screaming and running around) are so cute and haven’t picked up that I don’t speak any Thai so they just come up to me and blab away and it’s hilarious. I’ll share more later but for now, on to our cooking adventure. . .

We have a great night-market in our town full of delicious, cheap food, tons of clothes and little trinkets. Last night a group of us went and decided to sit down at this curry place to eat. One of our friends asked if there was a cooking class we could pay for around here. That convo turned into the chef drawing up a map to some market, writing up a list of ingredients, and telling us that if we show up at 10am Sunday morning with those ingredients then his mom would teach us how to cook a green curry, free of charge. We were sold. It was awesome and delicious (and freakin spicy!. . .I cry and sweat through just about every meal here cause the food is sooooo spicy! It gets addicting though!)

Here is a little picture story of our experience. . .

At the morning market (that had cages of frogs, buckets of snakes, and floating fish heads) with our list of ingredients, having no idea what we were picking up since our grocery list was written in Thai.

The restaurant where we cooked.

Our ingredients! And a different curry that was simmering when we arrived.

And then they made us put these bonnets on. . .

Our chef!

Mixin it up!

Another Chef making Tom Sam (Spicy Thai Salad)

Let's eat!!

The New Digggggggs. . .

Hello everyone!

We made it to Lampang safe and sound after a 13 hour overnight train ride. We splurged and got 1st class tickets and were treated fabulously. Our beds were made up all nice and we were served tea before turning out the lights. . .then we woke up to find the JUUUUUUUUUUNGLE of the north right outside the train window. Gorgeous!

We got a call Thursday night that we needed to be ready in our formal teacher clothes (aka what I like to call our nun outfits) first thing Friday morning because we were going to the school. We had to stand up in front of the Thai teachers and the kids's parents to help assure them that their money is going to good use and that we will be eeeeeexcellent teachers. I don't think any of the parents understood what we were saying anyway. We were shuffled around, had tons of pictures taken, and we basically just smiled and nodded for about 3 hours. Then one of the Thai teachers pulled me aside to tell me that all of the kids are "naughty, naughty, naughty" and that my grades have the naughtiest kids. I mean that's not terrifying to hear at all. . .especially since I see 20 different classes a week, each class with 50 different kids. So basically tomorrow I start a week of teaching 1000 different "naughty" kids who don't speak any english. . .feeling good, feelin reeeeeeeeal good.

So, yes I'm a little nervous to start this next part of our journey but also very excited. It will be a challenge for sure, but I think a good one. And I'm sure I'll have pleeeeeeenty of stories.

Anyway, here are a few pics of our train trip and my new apartment! And no, I did not pick the bright pink bedding. That came with the room.

Call us what you will. . .

Alright. So I know in my last message I said we were going to head back to our awful room, but about 5 min. after my post J and I looked at eachother and decided we couldn't face going back there. So we decided to get the hell out of dodge.

And boy did we have an adventure getting back to Bangkok. . .we made the decision to leave about 4, went back to the public showers to rinse off the sand and saltwater, packed up our stuff, grabbed a taxi (aka the bed of a truck) and headed for the ferry terminal. As the sun went down we hopped on a speed boat, watching the beginnings of a storm in the distance. Our driver couldn't get directly beside the dock so instead he pulled up next to a huge wooden boat that J and I had to crawl up onto and through to get to the dock. . .quite the site with all of our luggage. We barely made the last bus back to Bangkok where we found ourselves right in the middle of the monsooooon.

Somehow our taxi driver got us close to the hotel that we randomly picked from one of our travel books, but he had to let us out a few blocks down because the water was so high (at one point it literally felt like the taxi was floating down the street). So there we were, water literally up past our shins, practically swimming to our hotel, me with my huge backpack and J and I carrying her massive roller bag above the water. After making it to the hotel, we asked for a room and were told the place was full. We took one look at eachother, one look back at the storm outside, then gave the most pitiful look back to the woman behind the counter. She said, "Wait here, we'll clean a room for you". We flopped down in their chairs watching the thunder and lightening from the lobby's glass doors. . .and regardless of the flooding, the streets of Bangkok were still crawling with tons of people and cars. This city is insane! But we are now sitting in our cozy room, with a normal bathroom, a comfy bed and even internet! SO. . .call us Bellevue B*tches if you will, but we had to get out of that last place.

Anyway, here are a few pics from Bangkok that I wasn't able to load before...

GETTING AROUND TOWN. . .

SOME ARCHITECTURE FOR DAD. . .

GETTIN' SOME GRUB. . .

ORIENTATION AND OUR NEW TEACHER FRIENDS. . .

WAT PHO AND THE GRAND PALACE. . .