ชีวิตของอาจารย์Erin

The semester is over and I have not stopped to reflect or share enough. Life is better than ever here in Khon Kaen. The weeks fly by sandwiched between weekends of jolly fun. Highlights include golfing, fishing, finding bags full of cardboard robots, and solving the world's mysteries at Sunset bar (bird's eye view of the band above) and Bamboo Palace which is now equipped with a pong table and cushions for the bamboo furniture.

Midterm break was another trip of a lifetime. I joined Isaac, my friend from South Africa, in Koh Chang for an extremely rainy long weekend at the beach. The highlight was meeting some hilarious Thai people and celebrating someone's 34th birthday on the porch of our bungalow overlooking the ocean. Isaac came back to KK with me before we headed up to Vang Vieng, Laos. Vang Vieng is a silly place. It's a small town, very beautiful like almost all of Laos, and overrun by the worst of the worst backpackers in Southeast Asia, including myself and my five friends. The draw is the river. You see, in a parent's worst nightmare, the scheme goes like this. Pay for tube. Get in truck. Drive up the river. Get out of truck. Get in river. Get in tube. Float down river. Stop at bar. Paint body (optional). Buy beer. Use rope swing. Float to bar #2. Buy beer. Use slide. Float. Buy beer. Use bigger rope swing. Float. Buy beer. Mud wrestle. Float. Beer. You get the picture. By the end of the day, we had minor cuts and bruises, were down a pair of shoes, a camera, a couple thousand kip, and up two cases of pink eye. Life list must-do. Here I am demonstrating fine form off swing #1.


After that rowdy segment of the trip, we needed to atone for our sins so we headed South to Si Pan Don, Four Thousand Islands. That's right, you geography whiz-kids, Laos is landlocked, how in the world are there islands? It's a miracle of the Mekong River. Wiki it. Google it. See it for yourself. There are more hammocks than power outlets and everyone seems content to take it easy. We rode bikes through idyllic palm-tree-lined rice paddies to see the widest waterfall in Southeast Asia. We watched two of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Grown men cried. We spent the rest of our time enjoying each other's company. In fact, that is precisely what we were doing when some guy who "forgot [he's] not a strong swimmer" leapt off his porch into the rushing river below. His head was barely above water as he floundered into our view. Eagle Scout to the rescue. Glenn earns Lifesaving Merit Badge.



Dad, this one is for you:




In one of my favorite travel writing pieces, Why We Travel, Pico Iyer writes that when an American travels, (s)he learns about a foreign place as foreigners simultaneously learn about Americans. We are like walking video screens. We might literally be the closest thing to Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton some of the people we encounter ever experience firsthand. Anyways, a few weeks back, I ran into my sculptor friend P'Prajak in our favorite coffee shop. He said it was fortuitous because he is currently making a Florence Nightingale statue for the Faculty of Nursing. Seeing as he only sculpts Asian faces, Flo was giving him some trouble. You can see where this is going...? Uh-huh. Currently, my beautiful farang nose is waiting to be cast in bronze on the face of a bigger than life-sized statue of the Lady with the Lamp because I am the closest thing to Florence Nightingale for miles.

Check it out:



The fortuitous meetings in the coffee shop get me into some things. Glenn says that if I were in any other country I would have been killed by now. A little background is necessary. After class a few months ago, I was walking with my adorable student Mita on her way to rehearse a play for kids with chronic illnesses. I said that was great and she invited me to join. After meeting the group a few times and learning the lyrics to a Thai children's song, I accompanied the troop to the hospital. So, back to the coffee shop. P'Sek, the leader of this troop, asks me in his very fast Thai if I would help him with something. I agree, "ได้ค่ะ. I can, kha. ช่วยได้ค่ะ. I can help, kha. Ok, see you then, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ kha." Not sure exactly what I agreed to help with, I later discover I will be acting in the puppet version of the Green Goose play. On another side note, my grandparents are under the impression that when I return from Thailand, I will be fluent in ภาษาไทย. I am going to squash those dreams for all of you now. It took me HOURS, hours, HOURS to memorize 15 lines as แม่ไก่, mother chicken. Anyways, I did it. The show was a big success. Here is a clip from the practice. In the first scene, แม่ไก่ is immobile because, at that point, I was still concentrating on the words, which I mess up and you will know when because I speak some accidental English. The premise of the enchanting story is similar to the Ugly Duckling, but in this case, a dinosaur egg hatches on a farm and the baby dino sees papa goose first and thinks that papa goose is his mommy. Scared he's going to eat my chickies, Kookook and Kookik, แม่ไก่ busts his bubble and says to my chickadies, "What kind of goose is green?! Feathers? He doesn't have them. A wings? Doesn't have 'em. How can he be a goose? He's a monster for sure." Then sad little Dino takes a hike to find animals that are green and lack feathers and wings. He finds frogs and some komodo dragon things, but his origins remain a mystery. In the end, papa goose convinces แม่ไก่ that the "Green Goose" won't eat her chicks and everyone is very, very happy and we run around and sing. Like I said, this video is just a practice and it's only half of the performance. Since none of you can understand Thai, I don't think you will mind, right? Skip to 3:24 for my main part.



Ok, let's talk about my job. I have the best one in the world. I really, really, really enjoy teaching and I love, love, love my students. Some of my most promising starlets dream of serving green curry at an altitude of 30,000ft working for Thai Airways, which I think is hilarious, but we have so much fun together and I think they love me almost as much as I love them. In fact, I have some proof. Exactly half of the feedback I got from my writing students include the word love. One winner from No Name says, "To begin with... I love you : ) I think you are the perfect foreign teacher. Thank you for everything that you gave for me and friends. You are a beautiful women and some day you look very beautiful. For the last, I wish you are happy with everything and everytime. P.S. Sorry with my bad English." Not one single piece of constructive criticism. Not one suggestion. Simply a love note, but I am okay with that.





The best piece of evidence has been misconstrued by my extended family as a haiku written for me. That is the problem with forwarded emails. In fact, it was not intended to be haiku. Sweet, sweet little Tiew (next to me below with the bangs) wrote to me

i feel very luv u
i dunno how?
i think
Destiny
><
from Tiew

She later clarifies her non-haiku,

i means i dunno Know what makes me feel close to you .
i feel like you since the first we've met.
i 'm very Impressive u when u fixed my shoes.
when we talk together on the beach that makes me feel
u r the best friend 'n the best teacher ^^
and everythings that make me luv u so...
thx 4 everythings นะคะ ><




Now my students await their exams and I await grading them so I can hop a flight to Phratet INDONESIA with my pals from KK plus two good ones imported from the USA. My hometown crew is repping in SE Asia via Brooke and Megan. YAY! And, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Glenn decided to extend his stay and join the Indo trip before he leaves us for home turf which will be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

SANDWICH!!!

I'm so happy about this sandwich. Can you tell? I had to go to Laos to get my hands on some bread. Thailand should really start thinking about importing baguettes. How do I live without this stuff?

Pyromaniacal revelry: Americana at it’s best in Asia

This blog has been almost written a few times in the last weeks on a number of topics none of which captivated my attention enough to write a whole blog about. First, there was the visa fiasco, but, after last blog's cynicism, I just couldn't put you through it. The new PiAs, who are wonderful, deserve a whole blog, but they’ll be recurring characters so you’ll know James, Saba and Lizzie soon enough. I am happier than ever in my teaching career, and my students never cease to keep me motivated or entertain me so more on that topic at another time, too.

The runner-up blog featured the tale of a slow-motion head-on collision involving my motorbike and an old man aboard a bicycle. At first, the topic was too sore to touch, but I'm not losing any sleep over it now. I don't want to insult the man because, believe it or not, Thai culture and deference to my elders has rubbed off a bit and the crash wasn’t entirely his fault. Yes, that is code for it was my fault, at least partly. But, I will say, if the man had used his hands to brace his fall instead of save his cigarette, he would have saved me some scared tears and his week’s salary in forgone baht. He would have also spared himself an egg of a bruise which I saw when he took his pants off to show me. To answer your question, either none or skin-colored briefs, but I tried not to see. So, instead of cataloguing the current color of my post-collision bruises, you will get the story of my second July 4th in the Land of Smiles. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Fourth on American soil, and I don't want to insult anyone with whom I’ve spent the fine holiday by saying this one was THE best, but the Americans did pretty well for ourselves celebrating a holiday that you’d assume falls short anywhere outside the Land o’ the Free.

We inaugurated Saba and Lizzie's new house which has just enough bamboo “furniture” for a Thai girl, six Americans, a French-Ethiopian and a Spaniard to wish America happy birthday in style. The spread featured corn on the cob, fries swimming in a soy-oil-grease-meets-Heinz-ketchup combo, chicken which Thailand does better than America, and beers in a can which America does better than Thailand.

After the feast, we mounted our motorbikes and proceeded to shock and awe the people of Khon Kaen with our pyrotechnics. After taking off two to a bike on five bikes, our motogang shot a couple waterlogged and therefore lackluster bottle rockets in the KKU coliseum but bolted at the distant whistle of the KKU security police. Had they really seen us, it would have been fairly easy to peg us since there aren’t too many foreigners in these parts and seven of us are teachers at the fine establishment that served as our launch pad.

As our band of hooligans on wheels rushed off to site 2 with adrenaline in our veins, I asked my motorbike partner in crime, Lizzie, if she still had that Roman candle. She said yes and, anticipating what I was getting at, reached under herself for a lighter… bummer, it’s broken. Luckily, the Glenn+Saba team slowed down just enough to complete a side-by-side-lighter-hand-off and, grinning with the delight of a naughty kid, Lizzie detonated a progression of fireballs as we cruised across campus.

We arrived at site 2, haunted lake, after some serious offroading and branch-dodging. We busted out the big guns which really attracted the campus popo who were hot on our tails after the failure at the coliseum and our indiscrete get away. It was a very Thai-Farang run-in with the law. The altercation can be translated as:

What are you doing?
Fireworks.
Why?
It’s the birthday of America.
Stop. It’s very loud.
Ok. Sorry. Thank you. Goodbye.

Exhausting ideal campus locales, we set up the Grand Finale at the lake in Gung Sa Daan, my former neighborhood. At this point, it was 10:30, just early enough to have a good-sized audience of coffee shop chatters and Sunday night bar-goers. Parading down the well-lit street, we acknowledge “this is a terrible idea” and simultaneously “this is the best idea we’ve had in a while.” After facing the bikes in the direction of our escape, we lined up four big guys. One, two, three, light them, and three, two, one, BLAST OFF! 25 canisters of explosives which sent 25 balls of fire in 25 colors in 25 directions echoing with 25 deafening ka-booms like only your local fire department can produce in the States. It was exhilarating, maybe because they didn’t go quite as high as expected and we ended up dodging a little shrapnel. The tweenage boys in close proximity leapt for joy screaming “very GREAT, very GREAT!" We sped off and reconvened back at the bamboo palace where we rehashed the night’s excitement moment by moment and accounted for all 90 fingers in our crew of bandits.

my strange office and the urinator

Year 2, Blog 1: Ajustification

Hello loyal and not-so-loyal blog readers. Here I go again.

I'm back. I'm, well, what's the word, maybe "adjusting"? Yea, adjusting. Among other things, to
1. The heat. It's just so gosh darn hot. I mean, really, really, scorching hot. I'm talking sweat no antiperspirant could ever dream of beating in places you've never dreamed of sweating H-O-T.
2. The turn-your-stomach-inside-out stenches that lurk around the corner waiting to prey on an-already-slightly-queasy-from-one-too-many-Changs (Thai beer, more potent than you'd think) version of me. You never know what's rotting on a Thai sidewalk. It's not a place for the easily-nauseated.
3. The fact that my lunch today cost me a whopping 78 cents. Beat that, McDonald's value meal.
4. A puppy that pees when I walk through the door. Any door, really. It's nice to be loved, Micah, but I just went to floss my teeth and you're psyched to see me again, really? Oh, and now your tail's wagging through your piddle puddle? How special... Or when Neuki and I aren't home to excite the urine out of her, she pees on newspapers which putrefy in the heat I was just talking about and contribute to one of those smells I was just talking about. Although, I guess it can't quite be classified as a lurking shocker because it's an expected gag-inducer now.
5. The undrinkable water. If I could just close my mouth in the shower...
6. The comments about my weight gain. No joke, a friend today compared me to an inflatable device in that I look like I just added some air. Actually, it was cheese. Burritos, enchiladas, pizza, lasagna, god bless america... and I give it about 10 days in this sauna and the metaphorical tire that is me will have deflated again, okay skinny Thai girl?
7. Living in a country with a fragile government. Before I left, my dad said it will be formative and interesting to be in a country like Thailand in order to "witness the fragility of governments firsthand." My mom said that was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. But, concerning your concerns concerning this concern, please don't worry. Things are calm for now. In case violence does break out, I will be sure not to follow my dad's next piece of what is usually infallible wisdom. While attempting to quell my nerves regarding leaving for Khon Kaen just as two municipal buildings were burnt to the ground, Bri says, "Don't worry, Bear, if things are on fire, just stay under the covers." Can you at least kind of sort of see where he was coming from on that one? It's almost good advice...barring my house being on fire or a few other contingencies.
8. Living on the opposite side of the world from 98.4% of all the people I love. It stinks. If this list were in order, this would be number #2, close behind the heat as the biggest adjustment.
9. Driving on the left. But even more, the left-side passenger seat location. Gets me every time.
10. The heat. Yes, I know, I said it before. But have you stopped to ponder how hot it could actually be here? Remember when your art teacher explained the kiln? This is what I imagined.
11. Being bowed to. And called "teacher" again.
12. ภาษาไทย The Thai language. Forgot that, oops.


Love,
@(oLo)@ It's a bear. See it? Ear, cheek, eye, nose, eye, cheek, ear. Maybe a koala. Thai people love things like this. All things "cute" really.

The Sisters Murphy+

Sisters Murphy+ do Thailand

Here are some of the photos, just from my camera. There are tons more!

Okay, okay, quit your bellyaching, here I am. A long overdue and apparently longed-for blog awaits you.

This past weekend my colleagues, 80 wannabe English-speakers, and I went to “where dreams come true” for English Camp. No, not Disney World, Rai Fun Ben Jing, or literally the place where dreams are real. In traditional Thai style, the buses stopped every forty minutes to refuel…the chips and meatballs on a stick, I mean. Also in traditional Thai style, we wasted absurd amounts of paper, plastic bags, water bottles, electricity and gas in a not surprising but still hypocritical slap in the face to our theme: let’s go green. No joke, one morning all 100 of us piled on two buses to ride what was probably a quarter mile, if that. We did, though, honor the theme with group names that included green fairy, green queen, green oil and green head. Moreover, yours truly graced the stage in the teachers’ skit as Snow Green. Besides the environmental destruction, camp was super fun. My time was spent secretly gambling with my colleagues (I came out of the weekend +11 baht or 35-ish cents), not-so-secretly posing for photos on every apparatus, in front of every tree, and in every pose you can imagine and then some, and running a game station at which the students attempted to match information to a particular country. For example, Doraemon (cat-like robot cartoon) belongs with sushi, Tokyo, and other things Japanese. No one missed that one, but Nelson Mandela certainly threw a couple kids for a loop. Perhaps the most fun was the karaoke…watching it, of course. Singing in public is not my bag, baby, but if I am ever asked why I live in Thailand, my video footage of the karaoke extravaganza should stifle all curiosity.

Now, what you have all been waiting for: the blog about my sisters’ visit. I sort of wish I had juicy stories of hair-pulling and head-turning, ear-bursting screaming matches in public places, but actually we got along shockingly well. Who knew it was the addition of parental figures that made the sibling combo volatile? Or maybe we are a few years older, a little wiser, and were definitely happy to be reunited in this wonderful place.

The adventure began in Bangkok. I scooped the girls from the airport, shocked them with my Thai language abilities (I have the vocabulary of an 18 month old now, and no grammatical structure to back it), and brought them back to our funky little hostel in Nana, the part of Bangkok that comes alive at night, if you know what I mean. We celebrated the start of the journey with the drink at this point in the journey known as Thai Whiskey. Caitlin loved it and continued to drink it for the remainder of the trip until she found out that it is actually rum, at which time she refused to drink it again because she does not like rum. (…?)

Days 2, 3, and 4 were spent in Chiang Mai. We toured Wat Suan Dok, braved the gut-wrenching songtaew ride up the mountain to Wat Doi Sutep, cooked 21 Thai meals at a wonderful cooking class, did more than some shopping at the night market, and made friends with elephants at Elephant Nature Park, which is one of the only humane elephant parks in Thailand. Side note, if you ever find yourself in this country, please don’t ride an elephant. I will educate you all on the issue at another time. At the park we got to feed the elephants and bathe them in the stream.

Pai was next on the agenda. On a really un-Christmassy Christmas morning, we made the windy journey. Even though Pai was much more crowded than when I was there in September, it still retained its charm and I think it won over the hearts of Sha, Cait and Jessica. After a hotel mess-up probably caused by my faulty Thai, we ended up staying in no-fuss straw huts on the river and we could not have been happier. In town, we were regulars at All About Coffee and the shops full of creative merchandise never seemed to get old. One day we biked to Pai Hotsprings where Shannon prepared us some boiled eggs in the 80 degree Celsius water. The next day we went around Pai on motorbikes seeing sights like Coffee in Love (a coffee shop made famous by a Thai movie and now probably the most visited place in Pai for Thai tourists), some cool waterfalls, the WWII memorial bridge and the Pai (reverse) Canyon. And in what will probably become as infamous as the Peter’s Family “Mokawk Reunion”, a major hair change occurred on the trip. Yes, Shannon has officially moved ahead of Caitlin in the ranks of coolest sister. Shannon Catherine Formerly Straight Edge Murphy has dreadlocks.

After a harrowing return journey to Chiang Mai, a flight to Phuket, a really shisty airport cab situation, a big boat ride, a long-tail boat ride and a fairly good hike with our luggage, we arrived at our next hotel in Ton Sai. I just made the journey sound much worse than it was, and trust me, most people would walk across hot coals to be in a place like this. Ton Sai is a beach a short but rather treacherous walk (especially done after dark with flip flops on, right Sha?) from the slightly more famous Rai Leh. Ton Sai is known as the more low-key, backpacker- and rockclimber-friendly side of the stunning peninsula. This is when you google image “Rai Leh” or “Railay.” I do have some photos and when combined with the ones Jessica took, we have a great collection for your viewing pleasure. Most of the camera was devoted to Shannon’s lover, Ben, a monkey that Shannon probably still misses. I think they were soulmates. Ton Sai was a wonderful, laid back place and our afternoon spent kayaking was one of the trip’s highlights.


To be candid, New Years Eve day deserves a blog entry of its own. I know your eyes are getting tired by now, so I will try to condense it. Basically we had plans to go to Koh Phi Phi to check out what all the fuss is about. Upon arrival, the hotel people tried to put us in this sketchy alleyway that was managed by the same company and we were not having it. After walking around the entire island, unsuccessfully begging hotels to remove their compulsory 1700 baht New Year’s Eve dinner, and discovering that there wasn’t anywhere else, we thought our problems were solved when we saw an advertisement for a camping trip to Maya beach (made famous in the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Beach.) Well, that fell through, and the spring-breaky-ness of the place was overwhelming anyways. We wanted out, which was good because we did not have much choice but to board the ferry back to where we came from (for the same 450 baht! Ouch!) and settle for a wasted day.

We could not go back to Ton Sai so we set up shop on the not as glamorous marsh side of Rai Leh (the East) which is a short walk to the more spectacular west side. Happy to be back, we got some great drinks on the beach, almost got hit by crazy fireworks and brought in 2010 trying to avoid creepy Scandinavian men. A good low-key ending to a rather hectic day that almost sent me over the edge.

Back in Rai Leh, we went rock climbing one day and Shannon scampered up the cliffs like it was no big deal. I was fine at first, even got to the top on my first two attempts… until my limbs gave out like a weak old granny and I could not lift my own body weight to save my life. I had to beg the man belaying me to let me come down. Jess was certainly much more graceful than I was. There was no flailing about on her part. We have about 293,903,655 photos thanks to Caitlin who did not climb but showed up to be the photographer. You could probably line all the photos up like a flipbook if you are interested.

On our last day in paradise, sisters Murphy left our less-inclined pseudo-sister for a crazy adventure. On what was supposed to be a hike, we found ourselves using ropes to navigate our way up and over a steep mountain and down the other side, working our way through narrow crevices of a gorge. The trek was really fun and the end result was spectacular: a lagoon of crystal blue water surrounded 360 degrees by cliffs (hence the rope trail, the only way in). Definitely a highlight.

I parted ways with my sisters in Krabi town, headed back to Khon Kaen to teach for four days while the other three scuba dove, jumped off rocks into the ocean, played with dogs named Julian, continued to eat delicious Thai cuisine, and had an all around relaxing time on Koh Tao.

I joined them again for the weekend in Bangkok. They had already seen the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha by the time I arrived, so we did some normal Bangkoky stuff like a boat ride on the Choa Praya, Wat Arun, and, obviously, a cabaret show. The ladyboys were enthusiastic, talented, and beautiful and we have the photos to prove it.

After a day of intense shopping at Chatuchak market where Neuki came to meet us (it was so wonderful to introduce my sisters to my best Thai pal) and a parting meal, we sent Shannon and Jess on their merry way. Not a dry eye in the house… I mean not on Shannon’s face at least. I just hope she was sad to leave me and Thailand and not just Ben the monkey.

Sunday, Caitlin and I came back to Khon Kaen and she lived my life with me for the week. She came to class with me, we saw a movie, we ate delicious food, she watched me try to learn Thai, met my friends, etc. Perhaps Cait can provide more details about this part, but my fingers hurt and its bed time. Thank you for reading.

Oh, by the way, as of right now I am 90% sure I am coming back for round 2 of teaching in Khon Kaen next year. Some things are still up in the air, but if the plan sticks, I should be landing in America for 6-ish weeks in April and May and I hope all of you will get on my social calendar. Love and miss you all!

Thanksgiving and not a cornucopia in sight!

Thanksgiving came and went. No one cares about the Pilgrims here, except us farangs. So we ate a fabulous meal at the Pullman Hotel where I wasted no stomach room on turkey, but filled it to the brim with the pasta bar, salad (a rare commodity here) and dessert after delicious dessert.

Apparently I say annoying a lot. My coworkers pointed it out and now it annoys me how much I say it. Not only because it’s a boring token word, but also because it must mean I am complaining a lot, and I really do not have much reason to complain these days. Neuki taught me a word for annoying in Thai which is guwan deen, but she failed to tell me that it is not a direct translation. I found out after I said it in class that it is not exactly G-rated.

So I went to Cambodia and it was great. I traveled from Thailand with the help of a new Cambodian friend appropriately named Mom. She helped me dodge the overzealous tuktuk touts at the border, took me to a hotel, to dinner, and literally fed me dessert with her own spoon. Mom and I parted ways in the beach town of Sihanoukville, though I had already met some Canadian pals and had quite the adventurous bus ride. A crazy drunk Italian Mario-brothers-look-alike attempted to hijack our bus wielding a small knife, after threatening to pee on the head of the driver when he failed to pull over promptly for the guy to relieve himself on the side of the road. We did eventually pull over and got a really nice moonshot of crazyman as he unnecessarily dropped his pants to his ankles. It was not until the rest stop that the attempted hijacking occurred. (Luckily, I was off the bus and got to watch from the sidelines). We left the guy at the rest stop and he chased our bus with his knife threatening to find us and cut certain body parts off. Anyways, I got along with the Canadians really well except that one guy doesn’t believe in human-induced global warming and littered on the beach just because there was already trash on it. Let’s just say, I had a word with him.

For those of you who are not aware, there was a genocide in Cambodia in the late 70s and I spent two days in Phnom Penh visiting Tuol Sleng or S-21, a former school converted to a prison and torture chamber, as well as the Killing Fields where thousands of people were executed by the Khmer Rouge in their attempt to rid the country of educated people and their families. I had just finished reading First They Killed My Father which is a book written by a survivor of the genocide and I was really glad to have the book to provide me with a background to the horrific story. No one really knows how many people were killed, but at least one million, so many that everyone in the country knows someone who was killed. Despite this incredibly recent tragedy, Cambodian people are the friendliest people I have encountered since the African village. On the whole, they speak pretty good English and although there is some petty crime I found everyone to be incredibly kind, from Mom to the questionably intoxicated tuk-tuk driver that drove Mere and I around the Angkor Wat Complex. Ah, Angkor Wat. There is really nothing more to say than Go. Just go. Sunrise over Angkor Wat. I checked that off my life list, but somehow seeing it again is back on the list. Is that allowed? Greedy? I knew I would love that temple, but I had no idea how amazing the rest would be. Mere and I spent two days exploring the ruins and it was incredible. Each temple had something unique to offer and some were downright mind-blowing. Have you seen Tomb Raider? Guess where it was filmed? Angkor Wat aside, Cambodia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Rice paddies and palm trees as far as the eye can see.

So now I have been back in Khon Kaen more than a month. Teaching is frustrating because of the book that was chosen, a regrettable mistake in the Language Institute, but one that cannot be changed without incurring huge financial kickback. It is above the level of comprehension of even my best students. I supposedly teach six sections of the same course but in reality teaching 20 Radiology students who come prepared and already understand some English is radically different from teaching 45 Engineers, 42 of which are male, at 4:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon. They pretty much eat me for a pre-dinner snack, refusing to do anything I ask. But, I still love the students and just when I am about to give up, we have a class that seems like a breakthrough, even if all I do is get them to participate in a silly game.

The weather has really cooled off. Since I am used to South Bend, I thought I would never say that I am cold here. I went so far as to bet Alison that I could go the whole winter without saying it is or I am cold. Well, I lost the bet already. In looking for an excuse as to why I did not want to go to the dance bar, I said I was too tired and cold to go. Shoot. I guess it might have dipped into the 50s the other night and it feels much colder to my body! I bet 50 would feel absolutely balmy to some of you right now. During the day it is always in the 70s with a cool breeze and a bright sun like those once in a while days at ND where everyone crowds on the quads and throws Frisbees. Let me tell you though, my internal calendar is really confused about Thanksgiving.

I am learning to read and write Thai! Haha, it is pretty hilarious, but I know all the basics. It is proving to be difficult, but I guess not as bad as I thought. It is really rewarding and gives me another perspective on language altogether. The more I learn, the more complicated the language becomes and I realize how royally I have been slash still am screwing it up. Let me just say that the word for far is glaai, said with a falling tone, and the word for close is glai, said with a low tone. Really? Really? Come on!

Neuki moves on Monday and that is going to be a major bummer, but Cait, Jess, and Sha arrive on December 21st which will be here in a jiffy and for that I am so thankful! <3