An early Christmas present

As I mentioned I now have a bicycle and thus a bit more freedom to explore outside Li. I've been kind of laying low the last while due to the money I spent on the netbook, plus it was starting to become expensive going to Chiang Mai every weekend. Now there isnt a whole lot to do or see in the town of Li itself, hence my eagerness to get a way to travel outside the place on my own. A quick word on the bike itself: its too small and weighs a fricking tonne, in short its a piece of crap.

The fun of the day started with me checking the bike to see if it was slightly roadworthy. The saddle came off in my hand..... Apparently the nuts holding it on had come off (and run away?) so I went to the hardware shop and got new ones. Once I had done this small piece of DIY I went and did a small bit of shopping and decided to have lunch (wasnt feeling particularly keen to jump on the bike just yet). By the way there was something going on at the school today. I got woken up a few hours earlier than I wished by blaring music. I went down every now and again to look at it and it seemed to be an adult version of our sports day so I wasnt too interested in hanging about. I spent most of the morning reading and checking emails before I got near the bike.



Anyway, after lunch I decided to do something with my day, having been pretty lazy for a week or so now. So I packed a few provisions (water, camera, suncream) and hopped on my piece of crap, sorry, my bike and began making my way towards a temple I had seen on the road to Chiang Mai which was on a big hill just outside Li. I figures if I could get up to it I might get a good view and some decent pics. I got to the temple, took a picture of the big statue at the front and made my way to the steps up the hill. I couldnt see looking up just how many there were but there was definitely more than at Doi Suthep (which famously has 300). It was also pretty steep and almost completely deserted. I got the impression it doesnt get that many visitors. So I get to the top of the steps eventually having paused along the way to take pics of the view which was quite good already. So I turn the corner a little bit excited and realise there are MORE STEPS! Well I'd come this far so I braced myself for another effort and dragged my lazy ass up the last few steps. Upon arriving on the top I stop thinking about how hard it was to get there because the view was simply breathtaking and the pictures scarcely do it justice. I stayed up there for a long time because I had the place to myself and it was just so peaceful and beautiful. I felt an extraordinary sense of calm when I was up there that I havent often felt before. After a while I left my little perch and moved to the the other spur beside it from where I could actually see Li kind of. Getting to this spot wasnt the easiest as there was no path or steps just rocks.



After a while I realised the sun was sinking and it was time to go. I made my way down the hill and hopped on my bike back home. I will probably return to this little roost any time I feel the need for solitude and reflection over the course of my stay in Li. While cycling back home my thoughts turned to why I came to this part of the world. It was for moments like this that I had made the journey across the world. For an all too brief time I was on my own at the top of a hill in Thailand gazing peacefully at a beautiful landscape a long, long way from home. The sense of happiness and of vindication in my decision to embark on this whole adventure is difficult to describe. I was profoundly happy and the day didnt end there......

As I mentioned there was some kind of community games on at the school. Well by the time I got home and showered it was dark and a party had started not too far from my front door. Curious I wandered over and watched a band playing on a makeshift stage to a crowd of noisy thais happily tucking into dinner. At this point I was accosted by two guys who didnt speak any english. I recognised one of them as the school handyman and they brought me to a table of school staff I didnt really recognise. They were determined to feed me (you can eat thai food?) and gave me some drinks (you can drink thai whiskey?) for the evening. I learned that the games had been between the various hospitals in the province of Lamphun and that our local hospital had won overall. So I spent the night drinking with people who spoke little or no english and watched the show. I tried to take a few pics of the …....performers but they didnt come out so well. I also got up to dance once or twice but as soon as I did I was surrounded by a gang of my M4 students who thought it was the best thing ever to see me dance. After a bit I headed off at what I assumed to be early (10pm or so) but everyone was heading back to their respective villages so the party kind of petered out not long after I left and I was able to sleep peacefully after a great day in thailand!

Teaching Part 2

The kids are getting a tad rowdier as the semester goes on. This is especially true of the boys who seem content to spend most classes battering each other. I constantly ask them questions and make them take stuff down off the board to keep them active in the class and usually stick an activity or exercise at the end of each class to reinforce what ive been trying to teach. This often has some hilarious results like the recent class I taught about Senses in Science. I spent the class going over the basics, how many senses, what organs do you use for each etc. Then at the end I set a few questions from the book to test if they listened to anything I said. One of these questions was: “What do you use to look at a painting” in relation to their sensory organs. Now as with any exercise I give in class there are usually maybe two or three versions of answers which get copied by the others. Usually this works out ok but today some bright spark decided he could see paintings with his ears so about ten of the kids came up to me with this answer. Once I explained to them what they had just written down they were less than pleased with whoever they copied off. They clearly understood what I told them they had written down but they were too damn lazy to work it out for themselves and put their own answer. Most of the kids are quite capable of answering most of the stuff I ask but they are too bloody lazy. These kids spend most of the class talking amongst themselves and ignoring me till I stand in front of them and ask them something about what ive just said. That shuts them up till I move on to another part of the class.

For any games I play they get really competitive and gets the whole class' attention. I had one where they had to guess how many paperclips were being touched to their hands or fingers while blindfolded. One of the girls got all right and there was a great roar! Whenever I try to play a game it can take an age to explain or get anyone to volunteer in order to show it. Thai students are very shy and dont like getting up in front of people especially their peers. This means in order to show games I must pick a student at random. I've found a fun way (for me) to do this. Each student in each class is assigned a number (for MEP 31 students 1-31) so all I have to do is pick a number at random and voila I have a volunteer! This unfortunate soul will get pushed up by their relieved friends and I can get the game underway. Of course once the game has been shown to them everyone gets involved and im swamped by volunteers so it gets easier after the first attempt.

I also gave my first Math test recently which ran a bit smoother than I expected. The results were as I expected with some of the students passing with flying colours while others put anything down and escaped to play outside asap. I had to set an MCQ which I wouldnt have if given a choice. It gives the poor students a chance but doesnt test the good students. I made two copies because I thought cheating would be rampant but everyone was quiet and kept to themselves. If I can get some of the middle of the road students to learn a few things then I will feel like I am making some progress in my classes. The mid-term exams will be the litmus test for that.

What else to say? I havent been bribing the kids just yet though ive been tempted at times. I have also needed to shout in one or two classes because everyone is talking and I even got angry in one class when one of the kids jumped out of her seat and knocked over a glass. She had been fighting with the person beside her for the whole class and it had been annoying me. Once the kids realised I was angry it went silent for a while but once I calmed down it went noisy again. Anyway ive spent the last few weeks holed up in Li because between the netbook and sending a parcel home to roscommon im a bit out of pocket so cheaper to stay home. Im sure i'll spend a whack in Phuket and Phi Phi over the New Year as well. I'm living a pretty spartan lifestyle here in Li, I reckon I survived the last week on about 500-600 baht. Thats a tenner in euros give or take.....

Thai driving

Whether it is on the bus, in a songthaew or some other mode of transport there is a certain level of risk involved that you wouldnt get back home. For example, I got the bus to and from Chiang Mai recently and it had two doors, one at the front and one at the rear. For the whole journey these were wide open and people were sleeping on their seats nearby. It could have been so simple to slip off the chair and fall out. But of course they dont think about that here in Thailand. They are much more carefree and dont spend time agonising over what might be, they just get on with it. Songthaews are covered pickups with a gap in the back to climb in (see above) so you could also fall out of this as i nearly did going up Doi Suthep! After that you have the motorbikes (mostly mopeds really) which most people have. There are some kids in my first year (M1) class who drive them to school which is kind of scary. Of course you will never see anyone wearing a helmet (though i have seen them used as kind of baskets) and usually there are 3 or 4 people packed onto a bike, each clinging to each other to stay on. Unthinkable in Western society.

Then of course are the fabled tuk-tuks (see image below). These are essentially 3 wheel bikes with a driving seat and space in the back for n amount of passengers (n being how ambitious the driver is at that point in time). These guys think they own the place, big enough to bully bikes out of the way and small enough to nip in between cars and vans (pronounced wans) they are quite good at elbowing their way to the front of a queue whenever traffic is stopped. They also have the added advantage of being completely open so you can enjoy the scenery and toxic fumes of the place you are in. This is especially bad in Bangkok as it is smothered in fumes, i felt a little light-headed after my first tuk-tuk journey in that city.

On top of all this you have the Thai driving style. This basically means do whatever the hell you want on the road. Want to jump two lanes and get down a side road? Go for it! Sure the cars in the lanes you are crossing have brakes for a reason right? They also have a tendency to drive in the middle of the road (especially on corners), overtake in crazy places (on corners again) but they do blare their horns to warn oncoming traffic they are doing something stupid! If you are on a motorbike you have to have your senses about you to cope with all this as well as the complimentary random lane changing for no reason (they basically weave across the road for the craic) because if you dont then you get an earful of carhorn or hit. This of course means you have the bikes weaving crazily across the road, if only to avoid the cars. I once saw a car in Chiang Mai turn to go into a car park from the middle lane of a big road and almost take out a bike because the idiot never looked to see was anyone in the inside lane! Fortunately this biker was obviously used to this type of thing as he just veered wildly, almost fell off and kept going without batting an eye.

During any of these journeys it is every person for themselves. If you cant hold on then you are going to have an unpleasant journey. Seat belts are non-existent except maybe in actual cars or minibuses (wans). This is a country remember where you pack as much stuff or as many people onto a small area as possible. Seatbelts restrict this so they just get taken out. Most of the time vehicles will be overcrowded (i think i have a different interpretation of overcrowded than thais) so you just grab whatever is to hand and hold on (like the dart at rush hour except twice as bad).

Anyway i got my bicycle this week finally so i have a bit more freedom and can take a few trips outside of the town without relying on public transport. Its a piece of junk, frankly, but the brakes work (sort of) so it should do the job. I'm sure the sight of a farang on a bicycle is bound to cause some accidents due to people staring at me while driving and so not looking where they are going but hey that's not my problem! Hopefully i dont get taken out by one of them trying to get a closer look though :)

Drinking and a new laptop

On Friday afternoon i jumped in a songthaew headed for CM to go for an important (cough) dinner with OEG. They had invited those of us based up north to it as we couldnt make the one they have planned for BKK closer to Christmas. Now usually i get the bus to CM but as it was the afternoon what with me working half the day (i say work, classes got cancelled due to the king's bday so i was on the internet) i couldnt get the bus so i instead had 3 hours in a songthaew to look forward to. This meant sitting on a hard bench in the back of a truck for 3 hours though i did have to switch songthaews halfway so that gave my ass a break for oh all of 2 minutes. Anyway, despite this, i made it safely to CM with a thoroughly painful posterior and aimed for the "Little Bird" hostel. This would be my home for the next 3 nights although i was booked in under one group for one night and under another for the other two. This proved a bit complex for the staff so i spent a little time sorting this out and making sure we all had beds for the respective nights.

By this time the gang from OEG had returned from visiting one of the other schools in Nan with the three guys teaching there in tow. I met them at the hotel we were having dinner in (on OEG). They had just enjoyed a 5 hour car journey so were a little tired themselves though they were surprised to hear i had taken a songthaew all the way. Mostly you wouldnt be in one for too long so it is a bit odd. Anyway we enjoyed a lovely buffet meal (i particularly enjoyed the veal sausage in bbq sauce) and had a laugh basically. It was all very informal but i had to tell my school it was important to get away in time. After dinner us teachers went on a mad session and i got hammered pretty quickly. I had been through a hectic two week period and had a lot of steam to blow off, which i did quite emphatically.

The next day the other group arrived off their overnight buses from down south pretty early. I went down and met them at the gate of the hostel so they would know it was the right one. They wouldnt come too close to me as i was reeking of booze so they laughed and said they would go a'wandering and to call them when i detoxed. I went back to bed and by the time i was up and ready to do something they were tired and fit for bed! So they went back to the hostel to relax and i went to the zoo with two of the guys from Nan. In hindsight we left it a bit late to go out (mid afternoon) and didnt get to see everything. The zoo is big and sprawls all over so we wandered around a lot and didnt get to see the pandas which are the star attraction (even if all they do is sleep). However, we did find our way to the games/activities section where we found a few weird things that i wouldnt expect to see in many zoos. We tried out the luge which for those unaware is a thing you sit on and fly down a hill. Generally its a winter sport but these guys had their own take. Basically we got a helmet and some pads then jumped in a pickup which struggled up a pretty steep hill. On the back of the jeep were our cars. These were, essentially, three wheeled vehicles which we sat in and had steering off a mountain bike with two brake levers. You sit in and plummet down a track cordoned off the path up the hill. The track was about 1km long but it was all over in a flash. We went down in convoy, led by a thai guy, and zoomed around a few corners. I even got a bit of drift going round one which the owner congratulated me on. All in all it was a pretty cool experience and got the adrenaline going! We saw a few other activities but were conscious it was getting a tad late and if we wanted to see any animals in this zoo then we should get a move on. So we wandered a bit more, not really knowing where we were going and eventually we were told the place was closing and that we should leave. So we headed back to the city centre and since we were starving we rang the guys and told them to meet us in a mexican restaurant where we had decided to get dinner this evening. We got a decent meal and went back to the hostel to begin the night's festivities. Today was the King's Birthday and apparently nowhere was due to sell alcohol so we had bought some the previous day so we could at least sit in the hostel and drink. Then we realised that all the bars were trying to open and simply hide drinkers from the police so we found a place and i gave the gang a lesson in darts and pool. The pool table was european to my delight and the gang's dismay as i wiped the floor with them all while they complained the pockets and balls were too small :)

The next day some people wanted to go to Doi Suthep. Having been there twice already i was in no rush back and let them off while i went computer shopping. To do this i went to the aptly named computer plaza and tried to explain to each shop what i wanted. They looked at me as if i was mad when i said i wanted a small, light laptop with a dvd drive (apparantly this is hard to find) so i settled for a small, light laptop with an external dvd drive. I got a good deal (HP mini 110 plus extras for around EUR300) and arrange to pick it up tomorrow as i didnt have anywhere to store it safely in the hostel plus they didnt have the colour i wanted and were getting one sent down from another store in a different city. I took off for a walk around the city and heard from the guys they were coming back from Doi Suthep so i met them back at the hostel. It was about this time that the guys from the computer shop called me to tell me they couldnt get the colour i wanted till later in the week but that they had a pink one that i could use till then. I wasnt too thrilled with this but agreed anyway as i figured i might as well have something for the few days while i waited for my one. For the rest of the evening we spent most of it at the Sunday Walking Street which is bloody massive. We got tired before we saw even half of it id say but it was good all the same. I finished my christmas shopping so there will be a parcel going in the post to Roscommon soon. We had a drink back in the hostel and then went with pretty much everyone else from the hostel (including the owners) to a reggae bar. This turned into a deadly night and we all had great craic.

The next day all i did was get some breakfast before saying my heartfelt goodbyes (i'll see them all for New Year in Phi Phi anyway) and went to pick up my pink laptop. They told me to come back on Thursday and they would switch it for a black one to which i consented. I had the day off (another thai holiday) so it wouldnt be too much hassle. Afterwards i went to the bus station and caught the next bus and spent the evening on the net with my cute pink laptop!

P.S. In the first pic there is Markus, myself and Jessie. Jessie's the one eating his knees :)

The King's Award

Ok this is the day of reckoning. After more than two weeks preparing the kids its time for them to perform in front of the judges of OBEC to show how savage our school is. I get to the MEP room at my usual time of 8am to find a hive of activity with students and teachers alike running around like headless chickens. My young Science and Math presenters are all very nervous so I spend the next hour listening to their presentations and trying to calm them down. Around 9am the judges are due to arrive as we are first on their route. But surprise, surprise it is 11 before they arrive (supposedly the projector died for whatever initial presentation they were at in the big hall prior to touring the school). Anyways while we were waiting the kids were growing more and more edgy and nervous so that by the time the judges did arrive I was a bag of nerves as well. Then the moment arrived and I swear some of the kids looked ready to bolt!

After all our worrying it wasn’t so bad. There had been a suggestion that the kids would be asked questions about their projects which is what I and all the other teachers feared as the kids had simply memorized their speeches and had little understanding of what they were talking about. The judges watched a few performances put on beside us including a display of thai boxing, some singing in Chinese and girl from the MEP class telling a story in English. Finally they began to walk among our stalls and stopped to listen to each one. Thankfully for both us teachers and the kids no questions were asked and the judges seemed quite happy with the whole spectacle. I spoke with one of the judges for a bit before they moved on to the next department. The whole thing lasted maybe a half an hour and the relief on the kids faces was evident once it was done. It was lunchtime at this stage so we got a bit to eat before the judges went for theirs.

After stuffing my face I went over to the big hall where the judges were due to lunch as there was going to be some entertainment put on for them. This included thai dancing, the adaptation of snow white and some singing from the MEP class. The kids did ok, working their way through “Que Sera Sera” and “You Raise Me Up” without too much trouble (they had got enough practice so they would want to do ok!). It was all good fun so I think it was ok. Then I was informed that a group from OEG (the company that placed me here) had arrived. I had been told a few days earlier that they would show up and I was curious as to the purpose of the visit as nobody had told me. It turns out they wanted to check how I was doing and look at how the school was treating me as it was new to their program. So they hung around for a while, had a chat and looked at my accommodation. All very relaxed and informal. It was a nice way to finish the day. And that’s basically it…..Two weeks of fretting and it was over in a flash.

From what I heard from the other teachers, the judges were fairly happy with the day as a whole and had little criticism of the MEP in particular which was music to my ears and the ears of my coordinator. I didn’t have to deal with the classroom observation in the end which was a bit of a relief. Next up is a weekend in CM with some friends from orientation in BKK. Promises to be messy…… :)

Mai pen rai

Sometimes it amazes me how little work actually gets done in this country. Since ive been here i dont think ive had a full week of classes. There always seems to be something on or something to prepare for. All of these take priority over class as well which means frequent random cancellations. So far there have been the Sports Days (with a few days off beforehand to prepare), Big Clean Up days, teacher seminars for the thai teachers and now we have a King's award to get ready for. From what i can tell this is pitting our school against another one in Lamphun to see which is better. This doesnt relate in any super prize either as it just seems to be about bragging rights and prestige. The other school is a large school in a large town and we are a small school in a small rural village so we are underdogs here. But everyone is getting behind it so there is a sense of confidence about the place. Anyway from my perspective i have six presentations to prepare, 3 of which are Math and the other 3 are Science. Between myself, Goy and Noon (my co-teachers for Math and Science respectively) we got our kids sorted for their presentations. We got a few ideas together and i typed up their speeches that the kids were going to memorise. They are a stickler for memorising things over here without really understanding it. This is a bit frustrating as it makes teaching them a bit harder as they just take the stuff down off the board and memorise it whereas i want them to understand the material. So I constantly ask them questions which annoys them :)

All of this is going fine until i realised how important this award thing was to the school and also how often the bloody dates change. It started as a Thursday, changed to the Monday before (which sent me into a panic at one point as i had little done at the time) then changed to the week after. We didnt know when on that week till really late so i just aimed for that Monday. I stopped worrying at this point because there was nothing i could do about it and just hoped what i would have done would be enough come the actual day.

So the kids got an idea, such as using a pizza to demonstrate fractions, a script to memorise and they had to create displays out of this. They asked to do that part as they were distinctly unimpressed with my (non-existent) art skills. So off they went and i was thrown around as a jack of all trades helping with the other presentations, an adaptation of Snow White, some songs, help with pronunciation (frustrating), plan and do the odd lesson and at one point go through a verbal reasoning test my coordinator was preparing for. For this last one i was expected to know all the answers just from reading the questions (as a native speaker i clearly have a complete mastery of the language.....) which would have been fine only most of the questions were a bit ambiguous. So i made educated guesses! All in all a pretty busy week even though I did very little teaching. Now over the weekend we are working on rehearsals to drill all of this stuff down the kids throats so they are ready for the day. I'm looking forward to their rendition of Westlife's "You Raise Me Up" which ive been listening to all week (i think i know the words better than the kids at this stage purely from it being endlessly repeated). Oh and there is also the small matter of the judges looking to observe one of my classes in order to evaluate me as a teacher as well.... No biggie.

Finally I would like to say that most of the time I just smile and get on with it when everything seems to get pulled out from under me at times. Its all you can do because getting upset achieves nothing. I also have no sign of a tv getting set up in my room or getting a bicycle. Nothing happens quickly over here. But as we say in Thailand: 'Mai Pen Rai'