MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I will miss the neighborhood that I lived in. I made some good memories there. Here's a little video that I cut together before I left. The little girl in the video is Punc (pronounced Pon), she is my friend Oot's daughter, I will miss them both very much, they have been wonderful friends.

MY STUDENTS

I took my camera to school during my last week so I could take pictures of all my classes, I took a little bit of video too, here's a little something I cut together. My job was really fun, I will miss it.

MY LAST DAY

Today was my last day of teaching. I had never taught before I came to Thailand, and I think I did a pretty good job. A couple of kids cried today when I told them I was leaving and not coming back, that made me feel good about things, you know, not because I made them cry, but because I think that they might miss me. It's nice to feel liked and appreciated. I've learned a lot of things over the last four months, it's been a wonderful experience.

But now I will travel, and I've got a whole slew of traveling companions coming out to join me over the next few months. My friend Charlie is already here, and my friend Nick will be arriving in a few days. There are many more adventures to come, but for now here is a video that I made when I got back from school today...

MY SOCCER TEAM

I've been playing soccer after school three or four days a week, it's one of my favorite things to do here.  Most of the guys I play with teach at my school, and some just live in the neighborhood.
On Sunday we all met up at the school, hopped into a small van, and drove to a nearby field to challenge another team.  The pitch was great, it was full sized and well maintained, a nice change from the small concrete courtyard we play on.  The game started at 3 o'clock and it was piping hot out.  We played two 30 minute halves and ended in a draw, 3 to 3.  I scored the second goal for my team off of a nice cross from my friend Oh, a side volley that bounced off the near post and into the back of the net!  What a fun game it was!  I was exhausted afterwards, and a little red too from forgetting to wear sunblock, oops.  A few of us went out for beers afterwards and I went to bed Sunday night feeling tired and happy.

Both teams posed for a picture before the game.  My favorite guys on the team are Oh and Lec.  Oh is standing to my left, and Lec is number 22, sitting in the front.  They are both excellent soccer players and also really nice guys.  Soccer is probably the best way to make friends in a foreign land...

PROMMITR FILM STUDIO

We thought we'd head out and find some waterfalls after lunch, apparently there are a lot in Kanchanaburi Province, but on the way we stopped to ask for directions and were told about the Prommitr Film Studio, so we decided to go there instead.  The studio is located on a massive military base and was built for the filming of an historical trilogy called The Legend of King Naresuan, an epic story about the rise of one of Thailand's most revered kings who ruled Siam around the turn of the 15th century and defended and protected the old capital of Ayutthaya from the Burmese.  I think they've actually only made two out of the three films so far.  The set was opened up to the public a few years ago and has turned into quite a big attraction for the people of Thailand, I was definitely the only white person there.  The set is gigantic and at the center of it is a massive fortress with a huge palace inside.  Every day they put on a show, a sort of historical reenactment and procession that starts outside the fortress and makes it's way up to the palace.  After exploring for a while we found a spot along the main walkway to watch the show.  Large speakers played a narration and soundtrack to the story as men acted out battle scenes and canons were fired off from the walls of the fortress.  The actors wore elaborate costumes and some rode in on horses and elephants.  At the end of the show the entire cast assembled in front of the palace as the spectators gathered around to snap photos and pose with the actors.  It was a patriotic show, my friends told me that it made them proud to be Thai.  We all went home after that, what a great weekend.

THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

After the floating market we jumped in the car and took off for Kanchanaburi Province.  We stopped for our second lunch of the day at a restaurant overlooking the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.  I can't say I remembered much of the history behind the bridge before we got there, the only thing that really came to mind was the whistled theme song from the old movie.

The Japanese forced the construction of the Burma Railway during WWII using Allied POWs and Asian laborers.  Thousands of people suffered and died as a result.  The part that spans the Kwai River is one of the most famous sections of the railway because of the many attempts by the Allies to bomb and destroy the bridge, and also obviously because there was a book written about it, and then a hugely successful movie based off of the book.  It was a nice little history lesson.

DUMNOEN SADUAK FLOATING MARKET

On Sunday morning Kate, Eee, Cartoon and I took a off for Ratchaburi Province to visit the Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market.  Back in June I visited a floating market on the outskirts of Bangkok with my friend Dana (you can see my blog post about it), it was a fun exploration of life on the canals, but the floating market itself was rather dead.  Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market, on the other hand, was active and bustling, and very much alive.  The four of us hopped into a small long-tail boat once we arrived and set out to explore the waterways.  The market was packed!  We had to be careful to keep our hands off the sides of the boat so our fingers wouldn't get pinched as we squeezed by other boats.  People strolled along the sides of the canals and waved over the paddling vendors to make an exchange.  And some sections of the canal were lined with small shops that were only accessible by boat.  My favorite boats were the ones selling fruit, I think it's because they were so vibrant.  We grabbed lunch on the canal and ate as we floated along.  I had a tasty bowl of noodles and an extremely delicious plate of mango and sticky rice drizzled in coconut milk.  And to cool things off we had some homemade coconut ice cream which we ate out of the coconut shell.  I think it may have been one of my favorite lunches in Thailand so far.  Good times.

WAT PHRA MAHATHAT

Do they know where all the Buddha heads were taken? And how? That must have been some heavy loot to carry around. This temple is full of headless Buddha statues. One of the few Buddha heads left is wrapped up in the trunk of a banyan tree, it's quite a famed image in Thailand.

This was our last stop of the day in Ayutthaya, what an awesome city. And we only saw a few of the hundreds of temples and ruins in the area, this is the kind of place I could go back to over and over again.

THE ANCIENT ROYAL PALACE

This place was great, I can barely image what it must have been like in its heyday. I guess it got wrecked pretty bad during the Burmese invasions. The Burmese never really conquered Ayutthaya, they just rolled in, broke a bunch of stuff, and looted the hell out of it. They melted down anything with gold on it and decapitated every stone Buddha statue they could get their hands on. How unfortunate.

BIG GOLDEN BUDDHA

I don't remember the name of this temple, but it was a great stop on our tour of Ayutthaya. And like the last temple we visited, I was invited again to pray.

At this temple people offered clothes to the Buddha, a golden-orange robe which they presented on a little tray. The room was packed, and everyone was kneeling on the floor in front of the giant statue. The prayer was led by a charismatic monk who chanted into a microphone. He and his young assistant walked around the crowd and gathered the robes, and then blindly tossed them one by one over their shoulders to a handful of men who were standing up high above on the Buddha's lap. After the prayer was finished, and the robes where all collected and offered up to the Buddha, the guys up on the Buddha's lap threw the long robes back down over the crowd, covering everyone in the golden-orange cloth, and then pulled them back up onto the Buddha's lap. I thought the whole process was actually kind of entertaining.

A RECLINING BUDDHA

There's a big reclining Buddha at Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol. For good luck people stick coins to the bottom of his feet. I'm not quite sure how they stay, I stuck one up there myself, I think it's magic. But then this old man came along and brushed them all off, I think it tickled the big Buddha, and when he chuckled it rumbled the earth.

WAT YAI CHAYA MONGKOL

I really enjoyed visiting Ayutthaya with my Thai friends, for me it was sight seeing, but for them it was time to pray to Buddha. When we got to this temple they handed me a lotus flower, a candle, and some incense, and invited me pray with them. It was nice. Unlike some of the other temples that we visited later in the day, this one appeared to have done pretty well against the Burmese invasions - it's name means "The Great Temple of Auspicious Victory".

AYUTTHAYA

Just down the street from my apartment, next to my friend Oot's laundry shop, is a comic book store that is owned and operated by my friend Eee. Eee's daughter Cartoon is one of my students, and everyday after school she goes to her mother's shop and hangs out until they close down and go home for the night. Eee's niece Kate lives close by. Kate is around my age and speaks very good English. She stops by the shop a lot, sometimes to give Eee and Cartoon a ride home, sometimes just to hang out. Last weekend Kate, Eee and Cartoon took me on a little tour around central Thailand.

On Saturday we went to Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital. It's a charming little city, full of old temples and ruins, and rich in Thai culture and history. Ayutthaya was the capital for over 400 hundred years until it was invaded by the Burmese in the mid 1700's, the city's treasures were looted, and the temples were left to crumble. Today, Ayutthaya's population is only a tenth of what it used to be during it's ancient pinnacle.

Our first stop was the Bang Pa-In Palace, which is actually a little ways outside of Ayutthaya. This massive compound has been maintained by the royal family for centuries and is now occasionally used for royal banquets and receptions. Most of the compound is open to the public and is full of ponds, fountains and gardens. We took a little stroll around here before heading into the heart of Ayutthaya. In the picture on the left is Kate, Cartoon, and Eee.

KO KRET

A little ways outside of Bangkok there is an island on the Chao Phraya River called Ko Kret. There's no question that it's an island, but the river isn't that big, so it's more like the river splits into two for a while and then rejoins, leaving a big chunk of land in the middle... if that makes any sense. But considering the island is only a three minute boat ride away, it is noticeably isolated from it's metropolitan surroundings.

Ko Kret holds one of Thailand's oldest communities of Mon people. One of the things Mon people are historically known for is their pottery, a tradition that is still upheld on the island. They use local clay to make their hand-thrown ceramics, and a number of old and dilapidated brick kilns can still be found. There are no cars on Ko Kret, only bicycles and motorbikes, and all of the little paths and walkways branch off of one main road that circles the island.

Mac and I rented bicycles for a little more then a buck and took a spin around the island. At a leisurely pace the ride took a little more then an hour. There are a couple of small towns on the island at which the road narrows and becomes lined with little shops and restaurants, many of which sell the local pottery. Even though there are no cars on the island, Mac and I still encountered a traffic jam when school let out and the narrow path became full of kids in uniforms all doubled up on their bicycles. After a nice lunch on the river, Mac and I took off to meet our friends to go fishing. It was a good day trip.

TINY DANCERS

It's almost like the Thai version of the child beauty pageants in America, but not really... I mean, it's just like a lot of makeup for such little people. I think it's pretty cute though...

THAI DANCE

I have all of these little ones in class. I got a kick out of this performance, it was real cute. I didn't even recognize any of them at first with all of that makeup! This was on Thursday at school, they were even more done up for the big celebration on Saturday! I always think it's funny to see little people dressed up like big people.

FESTIVITIES AT SCHOOL

The 3,000 students at my school are split up between four buildings. The building where I teach all of my classes is brand new and was completed just before I started my job. It's six stories tall and holds all of the kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms, along with a bunch of other stuff, like a computer lab, a library, and an awesome indoor playground that puts any McDonald's PlayPlace to shame. Last week we had a couple of events to celebrate the official opening of the new building.

On Thursday we had a festival for all of the students, there were a bunch of fun activities for the kids, tasty snack foods, and a number of entertaining student performances. School was cancelled on Friday in order to prepare for the real celebration which was held on Saturday. Thousands of people attended the event which started at 8AM and ended around 3 o'clock. There were things going on all over the place, student performances, live music, and a traditional Thai opera... all at once! There was a lot to see. However, Mac and I spent most of the day at the front gate, sort of just standing around greeting kids and parents as they arrived. I think they kind of just wanted us to be visible, having foreign English teachers at our school is kind of big deal I guess. So I missed a lot of the action on Saturday, but luckily I was able to see some cool things on Thursday.

One of my favorite performances was put on by the Taekwondo Club, they ran around performing martial arts to cheesy techno music and broke boards and bricks and stuff. This one kid even busted out some nunchucks, it was pretty sweet. The picture on the top right is of this kid running up the backs of a few kids on his way to karate kick a board in half that is being held by a kid sitting on top of another kids shoulders, quite impressive. But what really got me was the traditional Thai dancing that some of my little second and first grade girls performed...

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.