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!  

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

Elephant Conservation Center Pics

This post will be just pictures of the elephant sanctuary. For a complete run down of the second part of orientation click here. Here are the elephant pictures:

Orientation (Part 1)

 10/17/15 Saturday 7:00AM

The last few days have been an absolute whirlwind! Getting adjusted to the Thai time zone has been a little more difficult than I thought it would be. That first day in Bangkok I ate breakfast after finishing my blog post and then went out to explore the area around the hostel. The hostel was just two blocks away from Victory monument, a very bustling part of the city. There were lots of markets and street food to check out in the immediate vicinity. After browsing for a little while we decided to go get our Japanese Encephalitis vaccines. These vaccines were so expensive at home, so Molly and I decided to book an appointment at a clinic that was just a short walk from our hostel. I was quite impressed with the medical facilities. We were greeted by a nurse who took our information, then we saw a doctor who made sure we were getting the right vaccine, paid our $20 fee and got the vaccine. It was a quick process and the clinic was clean. It felt just like being in a hospital in the states but the prices were much cheaper.

The alley adjacent to the clinic was flush with small food stands and lots of people eating lunch. I decided that I wanted to try some of the food. The only problem was that none of the vendors spoke English, nor was there any English on the menus. This was common all throughout the area. Since everything is written in Thai characters we are basically illiterate here. It makes every day acts that we take for granted (navigating the city, ordering food) much more difficult, but it’s challenging in a good way. So I spent about a half hour pacing up and down that alley trying to figure out what the food was and how exactly I was going to order any. Eventually Molly ended up getting someone’s attention and just pointing at a ground beef dish that looked good. The meal was delicious but I added way too much of the chili peppers on the table. It was the hottest meal I have had in a long time, and by the end of it I was drenched in sweat. After that we walked around a bit more and then took a nap; we just couldn’t stay awake anymore despite our best efforts. When we woke up we were still tired, but mustered up enough energy to find a restaurant just down the street from our hostel and get dinner. My two meals on the day cost about $3 total. Food here is incredibly cheap, and it is actually more expensive to buy groceries and cook yourself than it is to just eat out.

The next day we woke up way too early in the morning, something like 4:30 or 5:00 am. We spent the morning just lounging and got breakfast in our hostel. I went back to the market with Molly and she bought a sundress for 100 bhat, just over $3. Then we got packed up and headed to the airport to make our way to Chiang Mai. The flight was quick and even though it was only an hour long, they still fed us a full meal. Man I love Asian airlines! When we got to Chiang Mai we met up with someone from our program and made our way to the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel we registered for our orientation, and spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and lounging. It was apparent that Chiang Mai was much more serene than the bustling, sometimes crazy, Bangkok. It has much more natural beauty and a more comfortable tempo than the nation's Capital.

The view from our hotel room

Finally, we came to day 1 of our orientation. The day started with a group trip to the Bhubing Palace and the Doi Suthep temple. The vans we took were grouped so that we would meet people who will be teaching near us. We met two other girls who will be teaching in the same town as us and a couple people who will be teaching in the same or adjacent regions. Everyone here seems so fun and comes from lots of different backgrounds. The palace and temple were absolutely beautiful. They were situated up higher on a mountain, and the air was incredibly fresh up there. 

 Left:The entrance to Bhubing Palace Right: Bhubing Palace flower gardens

At the temple I participated in two Buddhist ceremonies. One involved pacing around the golden pagoda three times while meditating. The other was conducted by a monk who splashed water on me and tied a ceremonial white braid around my wrist. 

Right: The stairs leading to the temple   Left: The view from the temple overlook

The golden pagoda at Doi Suthep

After the palace and temple, the classwork for the week started. We went over some teaching basics and some dos and don’ts about Thai culture. I’m hoping that the students I teach have a good understanding of English, otherwise it is going to be really challenging to teach some of the more complex mathematical concepts. Hopefully I will learn more tips throughout the week to help with the language barrier in the classroom.

Last night we got dinner with a bunch of people we had met throughout the day at a few stands set up for the national vegetarian festival. We had fried bananas, vegetable dumplings, and noodles with cabbage and a sweet sauce. Later on we went to see some traditional Muay Thai fights. The skill and grace of the fighters was awesome to watch. They also had some “special fights”. One of these fights featured seven fighters blindfolded in the ring just walking around and finding someone to punch. It was maybe the strangest and funniest thing I have seen so far.

The ringside view

Well it is about time for me to start day two of orientation. I am looking forward to meeting more people and learning more and more about what to expect here in Thailand!

The Journey

 10/13/15 6:00 am

Phew, Molly and I finally made it to Thailand after over a day of airline travel. But before I get into the journey here let me talk about the time we spent in Chicago. We traveled to Chicago from Cincinnati via Megabus, which cost us $5 each. Once we got to Chicago we met up with Molly's sister Megan, who hosted us for the weekend, and went to one of our favorite spots in Lincoln Park, the Devil Dawgs on North Sheffield Ave for some delicious Chicago style hot dogs. The next day we spent the morning watching some of the 40,000 people running the  Chicago Marathon and walking by North Avenue beach on lake Michigan. 

Crossing over the bridge to the Lake Front Trail in Lincoln Park

 I spent the afternoon watching my beloved Cleveland Browns beat the Ravens in overtime at a Browns bar called McGee’s. Can’t believe that they didn’t blow that one. Football is one thing I will miss a lot when I am in Thailand (my Sundays will probably be a lot happier though). We went Lou Malnati’s for dinner, which by my judgement has the best deep dish in Chicago. Yum! We spent the rest of the night resting and preparing to make the long journey.

The first flight from Chicago to LAX went off without a hitch. It was a Virgin America flight. They have a musical safety demonstration and cool ambient lighting, but were not quite as impressive as their reputation lead me to believe they would be. Like most American airlines they charged for every added convenience you might consider. This attitude was a stark contrast to how EVA Air approached their customers. Our 14 hour flight from LAX to Taipei and the subsequent flight to Bangkok were both run by EVA. The entertainment system on the long flight was the best I have seen, with many options and a very responsive touch screen. They were extremely accommodating: giving out eye masks and slippers to those who wanted them, and having extra staff direct customers around airports once landing. Furthermore, the food was superb. Dinner on the long flight consisted off a salmon slaw, fruit, chicken with potatoes, and a cheesecake type desert. Breakfast was served about an hour before landing. It was equally good. They even fed us and had free personal entertainment screens on the short 4 hour flight from Taipei to Bangkok. Also, every meal came with a beverage of your choice. You could have a glass of wine, a beer, guava juice, or some whisky on the rocks and it was all complimentary. I would highly recommend EVA for anyone flying to Asia.

The 14 hour flight was tough to endure; my original plan was to stay up the whole flight but I couldn't do it. I ended up sleeping about 6 hours, so it will be a struggle to stay up until tonight but if I do my clock will be on the Thai schedule. I watched two movies on the plane. First I watched inside out with Molly. It was a cute, funny, and sometimes heart wrenching watch. SPOILER alert: when bing bong sacrificed himself to get Joy out of the abyss I almost shed a tear. After that I watched the Entourage movie. It was pretty similar to the show so I liked it. I tried to start a third movie but fell asleep almost immediately.

In the lounge area of our hostel

                     
 After landing in Bangkok at around 4:00 am local time we took a taxi from the airport to our hostel, HI Mid Bangkok, near Victory Monument. Bangkok is a much more sprawling city than I imagined. It seems to just go on and on. This is my first time staying in a hostel, you can't beat the under $10 a night rate. The only drawback of staying in a dorm is that if you get in at 5:00 am you can't turn a light on and unpack because everyone else is asleep. But the lounge area is nice so that's where we'll be until people start to wake up. Then we can go get situated and finally start to see this amazing place.

Today we will be getting one last vaccination, the Japanese Encephalitis shot, and then exploring the local area. The JE shot is over $300 at home and is only $16 here. It will be interesting to see what the hospitals in Bangkok are like. The city itself is a huge but inviting place. The people here a very friendly. I can’t wait to go explore!

Departure

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog, A Thailand Adventure! For those of you that didn’t already know I will be spending the next six months teaching in Thailand. I plan on using this blog to document my activities in Thailand, and my travels after the teaching experience is over. I plan on posting at least once a week and hope to include lots of good pictures, stories, and tips for other people considering a trip or teach abroad in Thailand. I also hope to keep a list in the “places visited” page of different activities and excursions I go on throughout my trip. Finally, I would love to hear from some of you on here. If you have questions or any thoughts, please use the comments section on my posts. 

In this first post I want to cover my motivations for going on this trip, the information about my placement that I already have and how I plan on getting to Thailand. Travel has always been something that I have had a passion for. My first transcontinental trip came when I was only 18 months old: I traveled with my mom and dad to Mumbai, India to visit many family members on my dad’s side. Despite my only memory of that trip being one of me playing with my grandpa’s red telephone, the multicultural nature of my family impressed the notion of travel as a fun and rewarding experience upon me at an early age. Since then I have visited almost a dozen countries and have found every trip to be more than worthwhile. However, I have never had a chance to be truly immersed in another culture for an extended period of time. When I entered college I set a goal of earning my biomedical engineering degree and getting all of my medical school prerequisites completed in four years. This left no time for any sort of study abroad experience. After getting into medical school at OSU, I hoped to find a situation that would allow me to travel and still have some income to pay for all of my activities for one year. Also, whatever I chose to do would have to be worthwhile in the eyes of the OSU college of medicine as I would need to ask for a one year deferral. My original plan stemmed from using connections I had made during my summer internships at a company called Athersys to find a position abroad. Athersys had a sister company in Brussels, Belgium that I wanted to work for. I figured doing research in Europe would be a perfect way satisfy all my aforementioned criteria. In the end the sister company did not have much need for another researcher and I wasn’t able to secure a position there. When I told my girlfriend, Molly Koenig, that my plan to live in Belgium was not going to work out, she told me that she had found another program through an organization called CIEE. This program would allow us to apply to be placed in the same region and travel together to teach in another country. She had always wanted to go to Thailand, and I thought it was a perfect place to go. The culture is very friendly and the cost of living is low enough to make the salary given to foreign teachers more than enough to live on. We both applied and were accepted into the program. After my acceptance, Ohio State granted my request for deferred matriculation, and we began our long wait to hear about where we would be teaching. 

In late August, after completing our applications in May, we were notified that we would be teaching at Takpittayakhom School in the city of Tak, Thailand. Tak is the capital city of the region Tak on the western border with Myanmar (pictured above). It is about a 3 hour drive to Chiang Mai and a 5 hour drive to Bangkok. Tak is somewhat rural and has lots of waterfalls, mountains, and forests to explore. Although it is a bit quieter than I would have liked, I am excited to explore the local surroundings. I also plan on making many weekend trips all over Thailand. One surprise came with the news of our placement: I would be teaching Math rather than English, the subject most people in our program teach. More specifically, I will be teaching concepts ranging from coordinate geometry to quadratic functions to 7^th, 9^th, and 10^th graders. The school has a little over 2,700 students and the average class size is around 50. I am excited to get started! I have spent the months since graduation seeing friends, making some more money to support my trip, and planning for Thailand. I managed to keep busy most of the time, I ran my first marathon and took the GMAT, as I plan to pursue an MD/MBA dual degree at OSU. However, the last few weeks have been pretty slow. Tomorrow is finally the beginning of my departure. 

 Our apartment building, about a 5 minute bike ride from the school

My journey to Thailand will begin with my parents driving me to Cincinnati to meet up with Molly and her family. From there Molly and I will take a Megabus to Chicago and stay with Molly’s sister Megan until Monday morning. Flying out of Chicago was much cheaper than other airports in the Midwest, and Monday happened to be the cheapest of the days we could depart. We ended up getting a one-way ticket for just under $600. We will fly from Chicago to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Taipei, and then from Taipei to Bangkok. The journey will begin the morning of Monday, October 12^th and we will get to Bangkok in the early hours of Wednesday the 14^th. We will then spend the day and night in Bangkok. On Thursday the 15^th we will fly to Chiang Mai where our orientation will take place. After that we will head to Tak. 

 My backpack and duffel bag, all the luggage I am taking with me for the next 6-8 months

As I think about the beginning of this experience I am filled with excitement but also some apprehension. I have never been so far from home for so long. I’m sure it will be incredibly rewarding but there is no doubt I will miss my friends and family. There is also a fair amount of uncertainty in what I will actually need for the trip. I hope I am bringing the right stuff. More than anything I am ready to start acting on all of this planning, I can’t wait to see what everything will be like!