Starting a life in the monsoon rains...

I write from our new bedroom. The sun is beginning to go down, and the evening rays are spilling onto the bed. The light is just above the mists and clouds that are rolling slowly toward me from the base of the mountains that make our view so special. The banana leaves just on the other side of our property are blowing gently in the breeze, and the birds, crickets, and frogs are singing their evening song. Everything is so green, and particularly fresh looking due to the heavy monsoon rain that passed through just before classes got out and we came home. I don’t have much to complain about.
It is hard to believe that we have only been here just over a week. We hit the ground running and have been rewarded for our efforts. We have a home, a motorcycle, and are quickly establishing ourselves within the school community. We’ve got all our paperwork in for our work visas. We have towels, waste baskets, and food. We are still lacking some furniture, but all in good time. Already there is so much to write about.
At the moment, there are two birds dancing and singing on our kitchen rooftop outside the window. I think they help create the bird songs that we wake up to in the morning. I am grateful we found a place outside of the center of the city where we hear frogs, crickets, and birds at night instead of motorcycles…it almost feels like the countryside, but is still close to the heart of it all. Less than a kilometer from school, it’s a quick walk or bike to work and we’re only 10 to 15 minutes from the moat (the center of Chiang Mai is within a moat and was once a walled city). We found this place on our third day of searching. With three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a sitting room, a thai kitchen, front and back yard, dining area and connected TV room, we have plenty of space. It has lots natural light and windows, granite floors downstairs, and beautiful wood flooring upstairs. It’s costing us a whopping $470 a month, with predicted total utilities at about $70 a month. Again, not much to complain about. A word on the thai kitchen; this essentially means that the kitchen is in a small house just behind the main house. At first I thought it a bit strange, but then was told the reasoning behind it; Thais don’t like their houses to smell like cooking food, nor do they appreciate the ants moving into the house (as they do inevitably when there is food around). The simple solution is to put your kitchen outside your house…and it works! Thus far, no serious ant invasions and I’m beginning to enjoy the moment of fresh air I get between the house and the kitchen.
We are still needing to make the house home as the walls are bare and some furniture missing (though it came with quite a bit). Fortunately, between the Saturday and Sunday markets where we can buy art work and traditional Thai décor, and the enormous 2nd hand market that sells every kind of furniture and appliance you can imagine, we should have the place up to par in no time. In the meantime, we are exploring our neighborhood, which is an adventure in and of itself. I think we are the only pharangs (white people) in the area and are quite the mystery to the long term residents. People seem friendly, but there is a language barrier as Ryder and I haven’t learned much Thai beyond “Hello”, “Thank you”, “Spicy, please”, “Vegetarian”, and “Your Welcome” (though I haven’t actually had occasion to use that last one yet). I’m trying to envision the conversation we could have with the neighbors when we bring them fruit, but nothing too exciting comes to mind. We live about a 3 minute motorcycle ride from Rimping, a big grocery store with plenty of expat food. However we’ve hardly shopped there, because just behind is a great outdoor market with every vegetable and fruit you can imagine at amazing prices. We bought eggplants, Chinese cabbage, peppers, onions, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, garlic, avocados, mangos, bananas, mangasteens, and more for a total of about $10. The avocados and mangos were the most shockingly cheap at 90 cents a kilo! The market also has every kind of Thai noodle, snacks, 30 kinds of rice, spices, meat, clothing, house ware, shoes, toiletries, prepared curries and soups, everything! All in the charming, funky stalls typical to Asian markets. We've been doing all our shopping on our little Honda Dream scooter/motorcycle and I told Ryder today that I think we hold the record for what white people have managed to carry on a bike with two passengers. Everytime we go to market we seem to slowly make our way home with the front basket full, both wearing our overflowing Timbuk 2s, bags between Ryder's legs, me with both arms full. I think we're getting quite talented! Though we have a long way before we get as good as the locals, who can practically carry houses on their motorcycles...
As well as settling into the house and neighborhood, we are busy settling into school. Things are a bit hectic at the moment as we have a new building for the secondary school. Although this means beautiful new classrooms, it also means a bit of craziness. Regardless, we have had the students for a week now and I think I can say for both of us, it’s great! The kids are motivated, sweet, and eager to learn. It’s so interesting working with predominantly Asian students; they are incredibly respectful, and yet more subdued. When kids from Korea hand papers in, they use two hands and look down. They all always say “Hello, Miss” and “Goodbye, Miss”. At the same time, they can be incredibly shy in class and some simply cease to function if you ask them a direct question (this is not every student of course). Two of my students are twins who just moved here from Taiwan. They can hardly look me in the eye (as they were taught that it is very disrespectful) and, because they were discouraged to speak at their schools in the past, hardly make a sound. You can imagine what they must think of me! Making jokes and having a good time…blasphemy! I catch them laughing with the other kids though, and I think that they will come out of their shells. I think the same goes for Ryder and his students as well. All that personality is sometimes overwhelming for some of them, but they will get used to it. Overall, the kids respond really well, and Ryder’s already got Facebook requests from kids in his Economics class (which he ignores, of course). Although our students are predominantly from Asia (Thailand, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, India), there are also students from Brazil, Norway, France, Sweden, Canada, England, Denmark, and others. It is, as all international schools are, an English only school, so all classes except foreign languages are taught in English. For the most part, kids speak very well. However, there are students with lower proficiency in a different track and they are a bit harder to teach. I’ve got the 10th grade Biology students in this grouping, and I think it will be an excellent challenge to my teaching abilities to work with them this year. There is a strong language barrier, and learning science is not easy in the first place, let alone in your second language. They seem like hard workers, though, and I know we will find our way through the year successfully. Overall, we have a very good feeling about the upcoming months and are enjoying our students’ enthusiasm and humor. I particularly enjoy some of the Western nicknames that students have picked for themselves, with “Donut” being the winning name at the moment. The most beautiful part is that Donut is the smallest kid in the class and looks like he’s never eaten a fattening food in his life.
Other cultural differences are showing up as well. Today I was talking to one of my classes about the pursuit of science and what it entails. We were having a great discussion and had gotten onto how science is not always good (nuclear bombs, animal cruelty, etc.). Wanting to be fair, I tried to get kids to think about how science is good. Almost everything that facilitates an easy lifestyle is a result of science. Not only that, I said, but think about medicine! I asked how many kids had been to a doctor, just to prove my point. Not one! None of them had ever visited a doctor. It blew my mind. Everybody in the States has been to a doctor for one reason or another. We are totally reliant. So I thought I’d put a little twist in there to actually prove my point, and asked how many students had a family member who had been to the doctor, thinking they’d tell me that their aunt, grandpa, or mother had been quite sick once, but that the doctor and medicine helped. Again, not one. Needless to say, it’s important to keep these cultural differences in mind. From how a student responds to our personality, to what we think is “typical” and try to incorporate into the class, it all affects how successful we are as teachers.
Anyway, it’s time to sign off for now. I will leave you with some images that have stuck with me since the first morning we woke up in Chiang Mai. Having had no real sleep, we were both up at 4:00 in the morning. At 5:00 we decided we needed to get out of the guest house for a bit. Walking the quiet, narrow streets of the central city, we were fortunate to see glimpses of Thai culture that fade as the sun rises higher: freshly lit incense offerings releasing their scent and smoky haze in the spirit houses in front of peoples’ homes, the tropical flowers lining the streets just beginning to open their blossoms, a group of elderly people doing Tai Chi in front of a glimmering temple, monks wandering through the streets in their bright orange robes with their begging bowls in search of alms, those who offer to them kneeling to receive their blessing, and the sun cresting the evening monsoon clouds lighting up the temple rooftops sparkling like gems. More adventures to come…

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