Despite being out of the country (again) for Thanksgiving, it was delightful! I celebrated with 4 other TEFL-ers on Saturday, my first visitors (not including my stalker/secret admirer, who was, incidentally, never heard from again), 3 days after the actual American festivities, at my aparment in Chonburi. I went to the open market by my apartment, Ban Suan Market, on Friday after school. The market here is bigger than I realized and has almost everything I need, including tofu and dry pasta. It does not, however, have peanut butter, so I will have to go elsewhere for that, but in term [View Full Entry]

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I am woefully under-informed about the goings on of the world and also here in Thailand. I got an IM from Kelan last night mentioning something about the newest unrest in Bangkok, of which I was completely oblivious, so he sent me a link and I got up to speed on the news from the capital. The former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra (from the People Power Party), who was beleaguered by accusations of corruption and abuse of power, was ousted from office in September of 2006. In his place currently is Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-la, who opponents claim is the puppet [View Full Entry]

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I had my doubts about the wisdom of combining ice cream and corn, but after trying it for the first time the other night, I am convinced. The “corn sundae” is superb! There is a thin layer of vanilla soft serve ice cream, followed by a layer of cream-corn-like sweet corn, then another more generous layer of ice cream that comes to a peak at the top, and on that layer of ice cream there is a thick moat of gooey corn that protects the ice cream peak. I’m not sure it will sell in the States, but I’m willing to [View Full Entry]

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I spent this past weekend in shady, red-lit Pattaya, which is about an hour south of me (if you catch the right bus). You always hear about Pattaya—the kind of place that is almost whispered about; the kind of place you might not want to admit having gone to (according to Mike, one of our TEFL trainers). I had vowed to myself that I would not go to Pattaya, that I had seen enough “red lights” in Patpong in Bangkok. I had heard that the beach wasn’t even that great, but then again sometimes it would be nice to have a [View Full Entry]

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I am still working on learning the students’ names. Fortunately most of the children have a short nickname and they are often interesting words in English. Here is a sample of some of my favorites at school: Sherlock, Focus, Phone, Big, Bike, Popeye (girl), Captain, Premier, Boat, Porsche, Spice, Grape, Copter, Donut, and Pooh. Donut is an absolutely adorable name for the little girl in kindergarten, but will it be as cute if she turns into a chubby pre-teen? Will the nickname Donut stay with her forever, even when she is an 80-year-old grandmother? Earth is quite a popular nic [View Full Entry]

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Another election out of my voting area. It seems to be a trend for me. In the Bush vs. Gore election I was in Cuba. In the Bush vs. Kerry election, I had just arrived in Colorado. In the Bush (I mean, McCain) vs. Obama election, I was in Chonburi, but I VOTED from Ban Phe. Absentee ballots couldn’t be mailed out until October, so there was no way for me to get mine before I left the States, so it had to come to me in Ban Phe. It arrived with enough time to get back there, assuming that everything [View Full Entry]

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Monday’s “event” was paying to use the pool at a local hotel, but that one went off mostly without a hitch. I took my swimming things to school and walked straight to the hotel after school. The charge is 35 baht/day, which is just a little over $1.00. There were some kids in the pool that kept trying to talk to me and at least I could get a few of the basics in Thai: “What’s your name?,” “How old are you?,” “Where are you from?” That is about the extent of my knowledge, though, and then I have to rely [View Full Entry]

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I met Morgan when we lived in Ban Phe since she was in the TEFL group before us that overlapped at Condochain for a couple weeks. Morgan is teaching in Sri Racha, which is about half an hour from Chonburi by bus. It was decided that I would meet up with her for dinner and to see the Loy Krathong festivities in Sri Racha because there is a pretty harbor there. I got to Sri Racha and was amazed at the difference in our cities. Sri Racha has a proper (clean!) downtown area, with actual restaurants and bars, a green park [View Full Entry]

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My current life is made up of everyday activities that, because of being in a new city with an immense language barrier, become “events.” Each day has a new “event,” which is how I am choosing to look at things. If I successfully complete one such event (which is often an adventure, sometimes into absurdity) in a day, then I can be pleased. My Sunday night event, after arriving back from Ban Phe on the bus, was to get a membership to the local video store, so I can rent movies. The first part of the event was locating the store, [View Full Entry]

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On Thursday I was informed by one of the Thai teachers that all the teachers were supposed to wear all black or white on Friday in respect for the cremation ceremony for the princess, which took place over the weekend. The princess, whose full name is Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, Princess of Narathiwatho and was the present King’s sister, died last January, and for some reason the time between her death and cremation has been protracted longer than usual. Teacher Ruby and Teacher Julie from the Philippines were teaching here last year when she died and [View Full Entry]

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