Orientation Part 2

Thursday 10/22/15 7:00 am

Last night we finally arrived in Tak where we will be teaching for the next five months. Our apartment is small but it should be more than enough space for just the two of us. Today we will go to our school for the first time and meet our coordinator, Phi Dong, who will have a lot more information for us. But before that happens I wanted to update you all on the rest of orientation. We learned a lot about Thai culture and how to operate in society here. The country is 95% Buddhist in terms of religion. That leads to a collectivist, accepting society based on respect and living in the now. It is starkly different from a western society. For example, plans and especially details of plans are not usually detailed. This is because of the emphasis on the present: why worry about tomorrow when it is today? People here don’t typically reserve hotels or buy plane or bus tickets in advance. The attitude for most things can be described with the Thai phrase “mai bpen rai” which translates into “no worries” (similar to hakkuna matata from Lion King). It is also extremely frowned upon to show negative emotion of any kind in public. Coming from a western society it is going to be an adjustment to the lack of plans, super laid back culture here, but I am excited to be immersed in a society that is so different from my own. We also got a crash course in teaching English at orientation, some of the tips I can definitely apply to math. I feel prepared to start teaching!

On Saturday night we visited Chiang Mai’s night market and had a group dinner at a restaurant there. The night market was fun but seemed pretty geared towards westerners. I bought a pair of pants there that ripped the next day.

Left: The Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai          Right: dinner at Babylonian Iraqi Restaurant 

On Sunday we had a traditional Northern Thai meal at the cultural center in Chiang Mai. The food was amazing and featured everything from fried pumpkin to a traditional pork curry. After dinner we got to watch traditional Thai dancing and even tried our hand at a dance as group! It was cool to be exposed to some of the older customs we wouldn’t see today. After dinner we all went out to the “Sunday walking street”, which is basically a long street that gets closed down on Sunday and becomes a giant market. The market was packed with people and seemed to go on for miles and miles. Some of the vendors even practiced their craft behind their stands. One of them was blowing glass right there on the side of the street. It was so fun just to walk around and see everything. I also got a new pair of pants to replace the ones that ripped. They seem to be way better quality.

 Above: Traditional northern dinner     Below: Thai traditional dancing

Monday was a long day of classes so Molly and I decided to go get Thai massages after we were done with orientation activities for the day. Here you can get an hour massage for 200 bhat, just under $3. The Thai massages take deep tissue to another level. The pressure is a bit overwhelming at times but it felt great afterwards. The masseuses use their hands, elbows, knees, forearms, and feet to apply pressure in different ways. Stretching is also a big part of the experience. It is less about relaxation and more about doing everything they can to tend to your muscles.

Tuesday was definitely the most exciting day of orientation. We got to go to an Elephant Conservation Center, and it was awesome! We first got to greet and feed about 10 elephants. You can really see the emotions on their faces when you’re up close to them. Then we watched the group take a bath in the river. The babies really loved to splash around, they were so playful and energetic. After we watched them take a bath, we went and saw how they make Elephant Dung paper. They boil the dung to disinfect it, mix it with more water, spread it out on some fine netting and allow it to dry. The profits from selling the paper are used to support the center and keep the elephants in tip top shape. The last activity was to interact with a very young elephant, about 9 months old, and its mother. The little guy was too cute. He wasn’t strong enough to chew through the bamboo shoots they had for us to feed to the elephants, but watching him try was precious. I have another post here with all of the pictures of the elephants.

Tuesday night was our last as a group in Chiang Mai. We went out as a big group for dinner and planned on going a little farther to some bars. But as we were about to depart from our stop for street food, the heavens opened up and giant rain drops started falling. We took shelter in the adjacent mall and discovered that they had a bar on the roof which was covered. So that’s where we spent the bulk of our night drinking and listening to Thai bands perform songs from the American top 40. It was a blast and a great send off for all of us. I met so many awesome people and look forward to keeping in touch and jetting around the country to see everyone.

Taylor, Willie and I enjoying the "small" version of this drink

Yesterday we finally departed, but we still don’t know much about what the school will be like. Lots of questions will be answered today. I can’t wait to find out what life will be like here, and it should be fun keeping you all updated!

P.S. for a cliff notes version of my activities with links to websites about everything check out my "places visited" page