Settling In and Sukhothai

Sunday 10/25/15 6:00 PM

After the last few days I finally feel settled in to my new home here in Tak. Our apartment is small, but it is enough to be the home base for all of our travels here in Thailand. Let me tell you about the last few days. On Thursday we were picked up at 9 am to go to our school for the first time. Our school, Takpittayakhom, is the largest in the region and has about 2,700 students. In the morning we were greeted by Clay, another teacher who came through the CIEE program. He has been at the school for a semester already; we were not aware that there was someone already here. It was a happy surprise as he knows the lay of the land and had lots of tips for us. The day was filled with meeting teachers in the language and math departments, discussing our contracts, and learning more about which levels we will actually be teaching at the school. I will be teaching what is equivalent to 7^th 9^th and 10^th grades to students with varying degrees of proficiency. Here students are grouped by aptitude. Those who are the best students are in group one, with each level after that decreasing in ability. So students in group 1 can be expected to be near fluent in English while students in group 6 would know much less.

The front gate to our school compound

 After the school day, one of the teachers in the foreign languages department, Phi Neng, offered to show us where her house was so we could come visit or ask her questions if we needed anything. On the way to her house we stopped at a retired teacher’s house. They brought us fruit and water and we had a good time getting to know them. Phi Meaw and Phi Ped were the retirees’ names. We were told to think of them as our Thai mom and dad, and that we could visit them any time. Everyone here is extremely kind and friendly, it’s an amazing culture. After talking with Phi Neng at Phi Ped and Phi Meaw’s house, Phi Neng decided that she would spend the rest of her evening helping us track down a few things we needed for our apartment. (note Phi, pronounced PEE, is a term of respect for a teacher and that’s why it is in everyone’s name) She dropped everything else that she could have been doing just to help us out. She even showed us some great places to go for meals around town, and took us out to dinner at a pad Thai place by the river. It was easily the best pad Thai I have ever had. She was so kind to us; I can’t get over just how friendly and welcoming everyone here has been to us.

We spent Friday biking around town and getting some stuff done to get our apartment set up. Oh I forgot to mention that the school coordinator arranged bicycles for us. Another act of Thai kindness. The bikes make basically the whole town accessible for us. We decided to go see some ruins at Sukhothai, a city about an hour away from ours, on Saturday. Travelling in Thailand is an easy and spontaneous endeavor. We rode our bikes to the town bus station and told someone out front that we wanted to go to Sukhothai. They directed us to an old bus that would be headed there in 45 minutes, and told us the fee would be 45 bhat, about $1.50. We got to Sukhothai with no problems, and told someone at the bus station there the name of our hostel. That person then directed us to a Taxi that took us there. It was that easy to get where we needed to go.

The inside of the bus we took to Sukhothai

Once at Sukhothai we headed out to see the ruins! Sukhothai was once a capital of Thailand with its high point somewhere in the 13^th or 14^th century. These ruins are the most visited ancient sites in Thailand. Many of the Buddha images remain and people still go there to meditate, burn incense and have important festivals. The majority of the ruins are in the Historical park in the center of the old city. We spent about two and a half hours exploring the central zone of the park before the heat got to us and we decided to venture into a nearby 7/11 for relief from the weather. 

 Ruins of the Ancient Temple Mathat

Pad Thai, papaya salad and a pork omelet over rice enjoyed ruin-side

On the way we saw another ancient temple across the street. There are many ancient ruins scattered throughout Sukhothai. This temple was built in the middle of a reservoir and had many sign with Buddhist proverbs written on them. One of the most exciting parts of the day came at this temples fish feeding zone. There were so many fish there; it was very fun to feed them.

Me feeding the fish

Later that day we went to a walking street in the newer part of Sukhothai. We got a bunch of small dishes from different stands to have for dinner, it was delicious. This morning we travelled back to Tak the same way we got to Sukhothai. The ease of travel around bodes well for lots of future adventures in the Northwest and beyond. Tonight we will be hanging out with Clay and tomorrow will be our first day with classes in session. I am so excited to see what lies ahead!