Handball anyone?

Usually, my favorite daytime adventures are somehow related to a run.  Feet are two of the best modes for stumbling upon new things.

            A few days ago, Allison and I went for our evening jaunt, but decided to take a new road and see if  we could follow the river.  The road lead us to a path, which meandered to a small dirt road.  The red dirt lead us through a few small farm patches, a pig pen, corn fields, and past a small Buddhist shrine.  It was a beautiful, clear, and breezy day to begin with, and this little road only added to it.  On our way back through the neighborhoods towards our house, we came across a big neighborhood party (celebrating who knows what), complete with whisky-filled men ushering us in to join the festivities.  We ventured to the table and they gave us water (and probably would have fed us the entire feast too!), but then we weaseled our way out and headed for home.  Then we had the brilliant idea of eating dinner across the river from our house, where we had spotted some food stands and some top-notch sunsets a few weeks earlier.  Now was our chance—the sky was clear and it was dinner time. So we ran home, showered, turned around, bicycled over the bridge and made it just in time for the sunset. We happened to also have our ukeleles so we played a few tunes with the last glimpses of sunlight.  We cruised down the riverside to scout out a good dinner spot, and as we were checking out a stand and deciding whether to commit, two young girls in blue sports uniforms popped up and asked, “What do you want to eat?”  Apparently we were not too subtle and looked a bit unsure.  So, Pum and Tiew, our new highschool handball-playing friends helped us decide what to eat.  There was a lady selling tilapia (one of my favorites), but you have to commit to buying the whole salt-encrusted flapper, and there was no way that Allison and I could eat the entire thing. Conveniently, our new friends were sitting with about 10 of their teammates, and soon we were sitting on a mat with ten of our new best friends, chatting, charading, playing a uke song or two, and eating.  It was just a delight.  They even offered to take us around Nan, so we may meet up to go to the museum in a week or so. (p.s. the word for museum is Pee-pee-ta-pan. I think it’s my new favorite Thai word, second only to Blah bak a baw—blowfish).

Anyways, here is a picture with our new friends:

Teacher Ann moves and the family comes in force!

On Sunday, the four of us were invited to join Teacher Ann and her entire extended family at the ceremony for her new house.  Her brother and nephew picked us up in his small sedan and the four of us piled into the Thai-sized backseat and headed out to the new home.  She is moving to a legitimate development, straight out of suburban California, into a beautiful, bright, and open house.  But before she could spend the night there, there were many preparations to be done.  Earlier that morning, her relatives arrived from the small town that they are from (about 1 hour away), bringing loads of food, tables, chairs, and decorations.  Then four or five monks arrived.  Teacher Ann, her son, and her niece knelt under a little bamboo structure in the house while the monks prayed, removing the old energy and spirits from the house.  Then it was feasting time (obviously this is when the four of us arrived), and the 35 or so family members dished up sticky rice, laab, tom djud, the most delicious fish ever, and the largest platter of fried rice that I have ever seen. We mostly hung out in kid’s corner (there are fewer language barriers when you are playing and building forts with the couch), with the occasional brief meeting of one of the older relatives.  They were so generous and friendly—it was fun to be a part of the celebration.

 Allison and her new friends:

Thailand, America, and Italy Unite

As a belated 4th of July Celebration (really we just wanted an excuse), the four of us invited our Thai co-teachers over for dinner on Wednesday night.  We went to Chiang Mai this last weekend, where we picked up some gems, including pasta (and a large jar of peanut butter).  We strategized our menu in accordance with our appliances-- rice cooker and electric wok-- and set off to the market on Tuesday night to buy some kilos of tomatoes, some onions, garlic, and lots of veggies. We even found balsamic vinegar at the department store in town! A worthwhile investment. We whipped up a veggie-ful tomato sauce, complete with lots of Thai basil.  We completed the cooking adventure on Wednesday after school, boiling the pasta in the rice cooker and whipping up some bruschetta. All five co-teachers came,  and we had some other special guests as well: the 4th grade chinese/math teacher who always talks to us, Teacher Ann's crazy 5 year old son and her 12 year old niece, and Teacher Wandee's daughter.

We had a great time sharing our American/Italian dinner with them, and it was topped off by all of the fruit that everyone brought (typical Thai style).  We got everyone to play a few games as well, including charades, in which Dana did an incredible angry bird.
The dinner party set-up:

 The whole gang:

 Teacher Angeli (who has a bark to threaten any out-of-hand 2nd or 3rd grader) and me (the inexperienced foreigner):

Fourth of July Festivities!

Class parties are so fun. I nearly forgot.  All of the English teachers were sporting our finest red, white, and blue today and handing out oreos with peanut butter-as American as we get. I started class today by teaching This Land is Your Land (well, actually just one verse), and a few kids got really into it with hand motions, but in the end, the Thai teacher was the only one as interested as singing it as me.  Typical.  But I brought in my banjolele for the first time and they loved it! I think it will have to make special party appearances.  I tried playing some J Biebs, and they caught on right away. Instant success.  For the rest of class, we made 4^th of July hats, sang some more, and then everyone busted out insane amounts of kanom (i.e. snacks)! I brought in oreos, but they were nothing compared to the bags and bags of chips, boxes of cookies, dried squid, and seaweed that all the students brought. They take their parties seriously.

Tonight, we will continue the celebrations at our house! We are attempting to host a Thai potluck, but we’ll see a) who ends up coming, and b) what kinds of food turn up. Last night, I told our friend P’ Benz that we were having a party (and by that I meant a dinner party), and she got so upset because her shift at work was scheduled for 4 pm to midnight. She wasn’t about to miss the farang party though, so she called her friend, told her she was sick, and offered her 600 baht (around $20) to take her shift! Such a dedicated farang friend. 

This weekend, we are headed to the big city: Chiang Mai! It will be a long, windy bus ride, but I’m looking forward to visiting the other PiA fellows and my old host family.

Pha Yao

       Our first outing! We had a packed weekend last weekend, complete with teaching, traveling, dancing shrimp, and waterfalls. 

Saturday morning, we taught an English Camp for high school students from the villages of Nan province.  There were about 100 students and each of the four of us led an activity for a bit.  Dana was playing a game involving running and steeling each other’s chairs, and during one of the rotations, her group was sooo loud that I had to move my group outside.  The Thai English teacher who was with me said, “That group has a lot of bisexuals. They have more… ah! oy! (insert dance move here)!”  Sure enough, Dana had a lot of lady boys in-the-making in her group. That was the highlight of the day.

After English Camp was finished, we ate lunch with the other teachers, then came home to pack for our trip to Pha Yao, a neighboring province.  Kim, who is Thai/Indian/teaching English at a nearby school, was driving to visit her friend from Chiang Rai, so we hopped in her tiny car and made the three-hour journey. It was a doozy of winding roads and beautiful scenery, with lots of sudden stops for stray dogs that ran into the road.  We finally made it into town, turned the corner, and saw a huge body of water- surprise! Turns out the town was intentionally, then unintentionally flooded around 40 years ago, so now there is a large lake in the middle.  Just a casual landscape transformation… We met up with Mateya, Kim’s friend, and had a feast of fish, seafood, and “dancing shrimp” at a restaurant next to the water. The dancing shrimp are tiny little guys that are tossed with spicy sauce, then served still jumping around in the dish. It’s like seafood poprocks! Kind of.  Post-dinner, we walked around a little night market, then stopped by the BM Pub. Needless to say, bowel movement puns were out of control and only added to the amusement of the night.

Sunday, we took a little boat out into the lake to a small shrine that stood out of the water.  Apparently, 20 years ago, some people discovered the remnants to this temple/Buddha shrine, so they excavated it.  It was a small but beautiful statue on a little dirt mound in the middle of the lake, and the trip was even better with our bright orange life jackets and fishermen hats.

That afternoon, we drove outside of town to a waterfall.  We started hiking up a trail alongside a small creek, waiting for a huge waterfall and pool to pop up around each bend in the trail, but it turned out to be more of a rambling waterfall with lots of levels.  Even better! We hiked/scrambled up until level 5, when the trail got too sketchy.  It was so good to get out and see the crazy jungle foliage and move up an incline! I had missed it.  Don’t worry, we took a lot of self-timer pictures.