Family Visit!

Friday 1/29/16 11:00 am

Two weekends ago my parents and sister travelled all the way to Thailand to visit Molly and I. We were so happy to see them and show them around. We met in Chiang Mai on Wednesday night. We spent the next day visiting Doi Suthep, the temple that Molly and I saw during orientation, and lounging at our hotel. We introduced them to some traditional Thai dishes for lunch, and got Thai massages. It truly was a crash course in Thai culture. We went to Chiang Mai’s favorite night market and got lots of fun souvenirs.

On Friday we spent the day at the Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary. We got to feed the elephants, make medicine for them, take a mud bath with them and wash off in a waterfall at the end of the day. They are such majestic, massive creatures; it was an awesome experience to interact so closely with them.

The next day we took it easy in the morning and then went on a small river cruise/ruin tour. We ended up getting the entire boat to ourselves, and enjoyed the scenery around the Ping River. That night we all took a Thai cooking class. I learned to make some of my favorite dishes: Tom Yum, Khao Soi, and Pad Thai. 

On Sunday we headed from Chiang Mai to our little town of Tak. We spent the next two days showing my family our school and all the places we frequent here. It was so great to be able to share what life is like here with my family. They enjoyed learning a little about Thai culture and getting a better idea of what exactly we do here. We had a lot of fun grabbing dinners with the rest of the American teachers here in Tak, and even got to go out to lunch with some of the teachers in the math department. My family departed on a van headed to a nearby airport on Tuesday morning and spent one day in Bangkok before taking the journey home. I was happy to bring two separate parts of my life together, even if it was only for a short time. It was so nice to see my family again after being away for so long. It was so fun to share stories of my trip and spend time with them.

The next weekend we visited a nearby school in a more isolated, rural area than where we teach. Students here have very limited contact with native English speakers and we helped with some activities during their weekend English camp. The students were not as proficient as our students typically are, but they were extremely appreciative of us being there to work with them. I had a lot of fun working on pronunciation with them and playing games like Simon Says.

Me with one of the students from the other school

This weekend we are headed back to Chiang Mai to see cherry blossoms, a sunrise atop a mountain, and to meet up with good friends. It has been frigid by Thai standards this week, dropping to near 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but the weather should be much warmer while we are in Chiang Mai. It was the coldest Thailand has been in our students lives. It was also 90 degrees in the days before the cold hit. The crazy weather reminded me of northeast Ohio, and it was funny to see how all the students reacted to the cold. This weekend is also mine and Molly’s three year anniversary of when we started dating. It is hard to believe it has already been that long. We have both grown so much as people since we first met. I am very lucky to have her in my life, and I am so glad we took the leap to come to Thailand together.

Molly and I have been progressively learning more and more Thai massage. We have learned the steps for the body and foot massages. Next week we will learn head massage and take a test by massaging our instructor. It has been fun to learn something new, and Pi Jan has been a great teacher.

I want to close this post with a funny story about communicating in a foreign country. The ease with which we communicate with one another at home is often taken for granted. You can easily figure out how things work, where to go, what to do, what someone is asking etc. In Thailand that is often not the case. It has gotten better as time has gone on. We have learned a small amount of basic Thai and have a better idea of how things usually go here. However, this basic Thai caused some problems at lunch last week. I wanted to order one of my favorite dishes, crispy pork with basil. This dish is called kop pow mu kap (the spelling is probably wrong). I asked for it and was excited to chow down, when the waiter brought out basil with squid instead. He thought I had said kop pla muk kap. I had no way of really communicating that I wanted the crispy pork and not the squid, so I just ate the squid. It was really funny when he brought the squid out, I was so surprised and disappointed at the same time. The squid was a lot less fishy than I thought it would be and I got to cross eating a squid dish off my list of things to do in Thailand. So it wasn’t all bad. As always thanks so much for reading!