LIVERPOOL VS THAILAND

Last week I went to see Liverpool FC play the Thai National Team, it was awesome. My friend Colin, who lives in San Francisco and has been biking around Thailand for the last month or so, scored some tickets for 300 baht a piece, that's like less then ten bucks. So last Wednesday after work, I met up with Colin and his friend Gwen, and after dinner the three of us took off for Rajamangala Stadium, Thailand's largest sports arena. Our tickets were in the open seating section, but we managed to score a spot with a pretty good view. We sat next to a friendly Thai man and his son, he passed us a few beers and urged his son to practice his English with us, but he was too shy.

Liverpool scored less than six minutes into the game on a beautiful goal by Ryan Babel. After that I thought for sure that it was giong to be long game for Thailand, but they held on for the rest of the first half, and actually played Liverpool very evenly. I was impressed by Thailand's level of play. And in the second half, in the 72nd minute, Thailand's number 17, Sutee, scored the equalizer on an amazing give-and-go that sliced the Liverpool defence. The stadium erupted! The crowd's excitement was met soon after by a sudden downpour and some hefty winds, umbrella's started to pop open and spectators began to leave by the handful. Thai people really don't like rain. But those that stuck it out were treated by the much anticipated substitution of the Spaniard Fernando Torres in the 80th minute. Not only is my sister in love with Fernando Torres, but he's also one of the best strikers in the world. The game ended in a draw, and even though Torres didn't score, he had a bunch of chances, and it was amazing to see how the game changed with him playing up front. That's him in the picture on the right, hurdling the goalkeeper. Good times.

SOCCER

I brought three pairs of shoes with me when I moved to Thailand. Well, actually two pairs of shoes and a pair of flip flops. I knew that I wanted to play soccer when I got here so one of the pairs I brought was my turf shoes, which are ideal for playing on hard, dry surfaces. For some reason I pictured myself playing on dirt soccer fields, with clumps of grass here and there and gravel and rocks scattered about. Little did I know I would be playing on concrete. So instead I wear the only other pair of shoes that I brought, a pair of Vans, which are now practically destroyed. My turf shoes sit in my apartment collecting dust.

During our first week of school Mac and I were invited to play soccer by a couple of teachers we work with, Oh and Lec. Oh is a computer teacher and Lec teaches math. Everyday a bunch of guys gather at the schools courtyard around 5:30 or 6:00 to play ball. We use small goals and play with a futsal ball, which is smaller and heavier than a regular soccer ball, and has a lower bounce so it's ideal for playing on hard surfaces. Sometimes it gets pretty crowded out there with eleven or more on a side. The game is very fast-paced and competitive, but always a lot of fun, people joke and laugh and smile a lot, just what I like. We don't call it quits until it's too dark to see, and by that time I'm drenched in sweat and ready for dinner. The only time we don't play is when it rains, which it's been doing a lot of lately. The picture is actually of a little 5 on 5 tournament that was organized for a few days last week, usually it's shirts versus skins and there's like twice as many guys. We quit for the evening soon after I snapped these photos, the dark clouds on the horizon brought on a downpour. I'm really glad I found some soccer out here.

NEW FRIENDS

Oot, Eat, and Tui are some of my new friends, they live on my block. Oot runs a little laundry shop a few doors down from me, I met him when I first moved into the neighborhood. He lives in the shop with his little three year old daughter. I'm not sure where her mother is, and I don't know the whole story, but Oot said once that she was sick, so I guess he's kind of a single parent. A couple doors down from Oot is a little TV repair shop, this is where Eat lives and works. And Tui lives in an apartment upstairs from Oot and Eat. I think Tui works in insurance or something. These three guys hang out together all the time, almost every night you can find them sitting out in front of Oot's shop, eating dinner and sharing drinks. And every time I walk by they wave me over to join in, I've spent a lot of evenings with them. Tui speaks English pretty well, and Oot really wants to learn. Eat is rather quiet and just sits there and smiles a lot. Tui usually acts as the translator, and Oot's eagerness to speak English increases with the number of drinks he's had. Sometimes Oot and Eat will get out guitars and they will sing together. Oot's daughter stays inside and watches cartoons. Sometimes she'll come to the door and share a drawing with us or something. She's really shy, but is starting to warm up to me, she waves at me now when I walk by. Dana took these pictures when she was here the other weekend, Oot is the one in the yellow shirt and that's Tui in the middle. In the top picture I think I was complimenting Oot on the mustache that it appeared he was attempting to grow. Oot is all smiles.

NATIONAL SCOUT DAY

July 1st is National Scout Day in Thailand. Scouting in Thailand is strongly supported by the government and is a big part of school curriculum. Every Thursday students and teachers wear their scout uniforms to school and greet you with a salute. The older boys wear funny little ranger hats and brown uniforms, the older girls wear green uniforms and green hats. The little kids wear blue uniforms and these cute little short-billed baseball caps. And they all tie little bandanas around their necks. The teachers also wear scout uniforms, the men sport brown knee-high socks and cool belts. I don't have a cool uniform, I just wear my regular dress pants and a dress shirt on Thursdays.

Every morning the students kick off their day with the flag ceremony, it's held in the courtyard and lasts for about a half hour. On July 1st the morning flag ceremony was extended to celebrate National Scout Day. They honored a handful of teachers and marched around the courtyard for a while, it was quite an event! The picture in the upper left corner is of the courtyard full of students, and that's not even all of them! None of the kindergarten kids were there, and all of the first and second graders were hanging out in the cafeteria just off the courtyard. Scout Day was funny.

UDOMVITTAYA SCHOOL

Gosh, does this blog make it seem like all I ever do here is travel around and have fun? Well, that's only partly true, I also work full-time as an English teacher.

The place of my employment is Udomvittaya School, it's a private school for kids ages three to fifteen. There are about 3,000 students in the school, it's massive. I teach the little ones, K.1 through P.4, or kindergarten through fourth grade. I have each class only once a week, and I'm not sure how many students I see, but it must be in the hundreds. And learning names? I've barely even started! They study English with their Thai teachers as well, but I'm their weekly dose of real American English. I'm a mobile teacher, so I move around to a different classroom for every class, and when I walk through the door the kids cheer and shout with joy! I think they like me.

My kindergarten classes are fun, but very challenging, the kids are sooo little. I mean shucks, they're still working on mastering their own language, let alone trying to learn English! But I guess it's the best time to start. When I was in kindergarten I only went to school for half the day - these kids go to school all day long, but spend the entire afternoon napping, for like three hours. After eating lunch at 11:00, they lay little mats down on the floor, pull out pillows and blankets, and curl up and nap until the end of the school day. My youngest class is really funny, they've combined three K.1 classes into one big class, so I have about 45 three year olds all at once! Most of them are a little clueless about what's going on, but I think some of the stuff I'm teaching them might be sticking.

I really like my first and second grade classes, I feel like I spend as much time laughing at them as they do at me. The pictures above are from a few of my first grade classes, aren't the uniforms funny? Everyone dresses like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts on Thursdays, even the teachers, but I'll get to that later. Being a teacher is fun, but man am I tired at the end of the day. I've only been at it for a little over a month now and I really like it, I've learned a lot so far, I just hope the kids are learning from me, too...!

RICKSHAW

Dana and I came across this amazing prop and had no choice but to wrap up our weekend in Bangkok with one last photo shoot. This Rickshaw was on a rooftop garden. I kind of want to buy one, but I'll need more friends to come visit so we can ride around in it together...

THE FLOATING MARKET

On Sunday Dana and I went out to explore a floating market. Floating markets were once commonplace in Thailand before canals were replaced by roads. Even though the traditional floating markets have diminished, a lot of the old lifestyle surrounding the canals still remains. After eating some delicious pork buns, we hired a long tail boat and took off down an offshoot of the Chao Phraya River, spending an hour exploring a maze of old canals. Life on these quiet waterways is quite charming, stilted houses line the canals and people paddle about from place to place in little boats. The market itself was actually kind of small, little boats with people selling food and vegetables were docked along the edge of the canal, some were like little floating kitchens with people preparing plates of food for the shoppers up on shore. The market itself was a little anticlimactic, but getting a glimpse of life on the canals was wonderful.

WAT ARUN

My friend Dana's month long trip to Thailand has come to an end, she spent the last few days in Bangkok, and after work last Friday I took the bus into the city to join her. It was a little overcast on Saturday, but very hot. After breakfast we took a ferry up the Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun. Wat Arun is really neat, the entire exterior of the temple is covered in broken Chinese porcelain. Every sculpture and pattern is made of these intricate three-dimensional mosaics, the detail is amazing! There are a few different levels that you can climb to by scaling up some really steep stairs, and from the top you get a nice view of Bangkok across the river. After Wat Arun we grabbed lunch and then spent the rest of the day exploring street markets.