Karaoke! Notice the double microphones and the David Lee Roth-like moves! Awe-inspring isn't it? Oh yeah, I didn't need the words either!

Khao Yai National Reserve

This past Saturday we made the trek to the Khao Yai National Park, which is the oldest such park in Thailand. This park was amazing and spans 2,168 sq. km and encompasses four different provinces. We arrived at the park and then drove to the first outlook area because much of the park is on a mountain. At the lookout, we saw monkeys everywhere and saw that people were feeding them, so we joined in. I had a bag of Trix Cereal and soon discovered that Trix are not only for kids, but monkeys love them too. These monkeys were not very healthy eaters because they were eating Cheetos,Trix, and other food that people could do without. After we fed the monkeys, we continued up the mountain to our next stop which was one of the waterfalls at the park. It was not the big one, but it was a great site to see after being in the city for three weeks. After this stop, we continued to the top, but our view was hampered by the hazy weather. At the top was a radar station and there were military types up there, but they were guarding the road which was blocked off because apparently there were dignitaries playing golf down the road. I told Jon and Kristi that we should have a contest to see who could get the farthest down the road before getting shot, but in hindsight, it was a pretty childish idea,so we didn't do it. At the park there are bat caves that are supposedly supposed to contain (say that ten times fast) about 1 million bats, but we did not make it there. However, on the way home,we stopped by a steakhouse and I was in Heaven because the food was good, but the portions were not what I would have liked. Anyway, it was a great time away from the city! If you want to see more info. onthe park go to these sites! http://www.thaiparks123.com/en/nationalpark.cfm?parkid=17

http://www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve/asp/style1/default.asp?npid=9&lg=2

School

So, I am currently in my third week teaching full time over here in Thailand! At the end of the first week, I was the only third grade teacher here. One of the teachers was back in England for an extra week after their break and the other teacher in the room next door apparently got a viral infection from her malaria pills, I was teaching not only my class, but picking up other classes as well. I came over expecting to observe and teach a few lessons, but instead I was thrown into the fire, so to speak. The class that I am teaching right now is a good group of children, but they are off the wall. I am the third teacher that they have had this school year, so they must be pretty confused about the whole situation. The first teacher left for another teaching job and the next one got booted out of the country for having false credentials. Oh yeah, and their school year is different. Not only am I the third teacher, but imagine coming into a situation where you have no idea where the students are at and they have one month of school left until the end of the school year. It is tough! This is allowing me to appreciate what I am coming back to and I am learning a whole lot about myself as a person and a teacher. This week,the students are getting ready for some sort of dance performance at a mall, so half of my class missed about one hour of class because apparently dancing is more important than all other learning. Things are going well, and I will be home soon. The school offered myself, as well as Jon and Kristi jobs for next year, but I think my place is back in Washington.

Erik talk Thai, Erik talk Thai real well.

I heart monkey business

This is a peace offering to the monkeys only a week

after I almost got in a fight with a monkey in Pattaya.

Hard Rock

So last Tuesday was Teacher's Day, so we had no school! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to get a meal of real proportions (not Thai portions which do not fill me up). Speaking of eating, on Sports Day, they had chicken wings for lunch and I put on a show eating a total of 20 wings and two big servings of rice.

Mr. Slowhand- Eric Clapton

So, I am officially behind on my posts, but I am going to try and catch up. Last Monday we went to the Eric Clapton concert in Bangkok! It was amazing to say the least. He played for about two hours and put on a great show. The two other guitarists were amazing as well and all in all it was a great show. However, in the paper the newspaper the next day people were complaining about poor acoustics in the arena. The arena is new and was a great venue. I thought the sound was great. Maybe the people thought there were poor acoustics because Eric Clapton sings in English not Thai.

Comments

I changed my profile so that you can now leave a comment without having to sign up for an account! If that does not work, then just send your replies to either erikhansen07@whitworth.edu or enhansen@u.washington.edu . As for the pictures, those will have to wait because the compouters at schoolare so slow that I cannot download the necessary software to upload my photos. I will most likely make an account at shutterfly when I get home and provide people with the password and you can take a look at the award winning photos that I have taken.

Movies and being sick

On Sunday we went to the movie theater and saw Blood Diamond (good flick by the way), but over here they have different movie theater experiences. For about 450 Baht, or around 10 -12 dollars, we opted for the VIP movie experience. The seats recline, the arm rests are huge and have multiple cup holders, and they provide you with a blanket (although mine was taken by some European tourist). Also the seats are set up into six seats per row, but there is an aisle every two seats, so there is plenty of room, unless you are tall. Every time the person in front of me reclined/moved, the seat would hit my knees. This was not the worst part though. The problem of the evening was that I was not feeling well. I sat through the movie, which is close to two and a half hours in length and felt like any movement and I would lose it. After the movie, we made our way to the sky train to go home and that is where I did lose it (my dinner that is). I threw up right outside the train and that was just the beginning. Te next four-five hours I spent throwing up and not feeling very well. This is the second time in two weeks that I had been sick. So let me recap some of the memories so far-- 1.) The first night we almost get blown up. 2.) I almost drown at the beach 3.) I almost get attacked by a monkey 4.) I have been sick twice. 5.) I am afraid of the food, so get this... I have lost ten pounds in two weeks. 6.) Today I have no energy and feel as if I could fall asleep standing up at any moment. Other than that things are just splendid!

A mountain sized Buddha and an elephant trek

After the beach, we went to a place near Pattaya that has a giant laser-etched Buddha on the side of about oh I don't know, a 1,000 foot high mountain/hill. It was a pretty amazing site. After snapping some pics, we looked across the street and noticed some elephants and some people riding these elephants. We loaded into the van and drove across the street to go for an elephant ride. I thought that it would be a five minute, walk around in a circle ride, but no, it was a 30 minute "elephant trek" and was a good ol' time!

The beach and how I almost got attacked by a monkey!

This past Saturday Thai Christian picked us up early in the morning and we were on our way to Pattaya, which is about 50-60 miles south of Bangkok. When we arrived at Pattaya, we loaded onto a speed boat, where our guides took us to a beach on one of the islands in the area. Upon arriving at the beach, I saw the most horrible sights, that I would hope no one sees in their lifetime. Almost every person was wearing a Speedo, I immediately felt sick and wondered what I had done wrong because this was obviously a punishment. I nearly lost my lunch, and I had not even eaten lunch yet! After I got over the shock and the partial blindness, we went for a swim in the water, which was blue and clear,except for the occasional piece of garbage. It was during this time that I swam too far out in the water and nearly drown (this is no joke!). My arms became very tired and it felt as if I had just run a few miles. I turned backed and started to think that I may not make it because my arms were starting to burn a little and I had swallowed quite a bit of the water. Well, obviously I made it back with a little help from Jon and Kristi and decided to stay out of the water for the rest of the day. After lunch, I decided to mingle with the local folk and see what the vendors had to offer. After about an hour or so of walking up the beach, it was time to head back to the boat. On my way back, I noticed a man throwing some food up on the roof of one of the shops. When I looked up I noticed that he was feeding two monkeys. Since I have no pictures up yet, I will paint a visual of the next scenario. I am 6'3" and the roof is about 7 and a 1/2 feet tall so my head is pretty close to the monkeys. I break out the camera and snap a few pics and then I take one step forward to get a better shot-that was a mistake. The bigger monkey, takes offense to this and responds by walking to the edge of the roof, raising it's hindquarters in the air and leaning slightly over the edge of the roof. Then the monkey showed its teeth, which were big and very sharp looking. After the showing of the teeth, the monkey then made a hissing sound and I thought it was going to leap on my head. However,the man feeding the monkey pulled me back saving me from embarrassing the monkey in a battle of fists and wits. Sure the monkey would have gotten a bite or two in and probably given a disease, but I could have taken it in a fight. After nearly getting in a fight with the monkey-okay, so after nearly getting attacked by this monkey, I made my way back to the boat and we were off.

Sports Day

So last Friday the school held the annual sports day! The teachers were coaches and since they are so organized here, I got to choose a team to coach. I went with the orange team and let me just say, I know how to pick a winner! This was a whole day ordeal with four teams competing: orange, blue, green, and red. Before the games started I made a joke about when the torch was going to arrive and about five minutes later a student came running in with a torch (if you want to call it that). The students competed in games such as tug o war, the three-legged race, a relay race, and football (soccer). It was about 95 degrees with 50 % humidity. Okay this is just a side note- so while I was typing this up, I tried to type the percent sign, and the next thing I know I am typing in Thai. Sports day also had cheer contests from each team and each team had a drum (bad idea). The kids beat on these drums for about 6 hours, so every time I hear a drum now I curl up into a ball and cover my ears (just kidding). Also, they had one of the teachers announcing the whole day in Thai over these speakers, but the problem is that in Thailand the Thais apparently love to yell as loud as they can into the microphone, so drums + yelling= headache. The day was really fun, and the orange team won the whole thing. For the soccer portion, each team was allowed to have one teacher, so they asked me to play because of amazing athletic ability. They ran out out time, so the championship game was to be decided by penalty kicks only. Oh yeah, and the ball we used was one of those over sized balls, so it made it very interesting. However, I did not let this deter me from scoring the game winner, or "equalizer" for you soccer fans. Speaking of sports, since I have been here, I have been going through withdrawals of the "big three" - football, basketball, and baseball. I have had six dreams about baseball (I kid you not), six dreams! So I am trying to upload pictures, but these computers are ancient, so I am having some trouble.

Karaoke and basketball

Yesterday we went to Queen's Park downtown with another teacher and some of the high school students from the school. We played some basketball and I think that I blocked more shots than I had points. I felt kind of bad because I blocked one shot so bad it was like I was spiking a volleyball. I have noticed two things about basketball over here: People don't like to pass and they call a foul if they feel a breeze or you are within one foot of them when they shoot. Also, during basketball, right next to the court, a huge outdoor aerobics class was taking place with about 2-3 hundred people and the instructor was on this huge platform. It was like Body by Jake, if you have ever seen that show. The music was humorous and I almost went over to dance in between the rows to see what would happen, but I couldn't because I was playing basketball. On the first day of school, all of the high school boys were asking John, who is another in the group if I played basketball because I am so tall compared to everyone else. After basketball we went to an arcade where they had this speed bag (boxing) and you see how hard you can punch it. After that they had the strongman hammer game like they have at the fair, but it was a heavy plastic hammer. I tried it out and got the new high score, and almost broke the thing. It made such a loud noise that there was a group of about 5 or 6 Thai people circled around watching and laughing. Maybe they were watching because I would hit the machine and then do a victory dance, it was pretty fun! Then I sang some karaoke in one of those sound proof booths! It is made of glass, so everyone walking by can see you but, can't hear you. I was dancing and singing with both of the microphones in this big mall! One guy missed the elevator because he was entranced by my karaoke skills! People were walking by and laughing and towards the end, I found out that if you yell into the microphone then you can be heard outside the booth. It was a fun time and only cost 75 cents to sing two songs. People would walk by and I would start dancing around and they would laugh. The best was the guy who missed the elevator. I know I mentioned it already, but he actually walked into the closed door because he was staring at me. Anyway, I hope to go to some different karaoke hot spots around town and show this town how to sing! Either that or I will be banned from every karaoke place!

Until next time

First week of school

Sorry that there are no pictures yet! Look for those tomorrow sometime!

So I am adjusting to life in Thailand, but it has been tough. I was sick for a few days due to some sort of food poisoning, and the two others with me, John and Kristi were sick also. I think it may be due to the lack of cleanliness that this city has, especially the part we are in. This past Sunday we went to a Chinese/Thai Christian Church, and they had translators through headsets, but they did not work, so imagine a two and a half hour church service in two languages that you have know idea what is going on. As far as teaching goes, I am teaching full time and it is very difficult because I have no technology in my classroom, no lesson plans (because the teacher left), I don't have all the books, I had no idea where the students were in their books, I have no supplies (so it is hard to do the activities that I would like to do, and oh yeah, the students' English is not too great. The books that I have to use are British, so they spell center- centre and it's just a mess. However, I have already been told by some teachers that the three of us are better than half the teachers at this school, but I have not let this go to my head. The school is very unorganized and there is no discipline for the students because the school is run by the Thais and I guess they do not believe too much in discipline. I am teaching third grade, so my students are very polite and want to learn. However, I have heard that the high-schoolers show up to class twenty minutes late and many do not do their work, but get this-they can't fail. Yes, apparently it is a law in Thailand that you cannot fail a student, so many just come to school to socialize-it's pretty sad. Anyway that's it for this topic.