It was a hell of a journey to get here. I left for Thailand from JFK on Thursday, June 7th (coincidentally, with Leah, another PiA fellow), and after 18 hours of air travel and a mad dash through the Bangkok airport to make my connecting flight, landed safely in Chiang Mai on Friday night. Unfortunately, my baggage, my ATM card’s ability to work, and my ability to decipher Thai pay phones did not make it with me. After a momentary freakout, a quick sigh of relief for having cash on me to exchange, an extremely helpful cleaning lady that could work a pay phone and read the numbers written on the palm of my hand, and the arrival of another flight from Bangkok in Chiang Mai, I had a handful of baht (Thai currency, 34 baht = $1), the assurance that the PiA fellow I was supposed to meet in Chiang Mai was on his way to the airport, and my luggage. The Chiang Mai PiA fellow, Jared, Leah’s boss, and Leah’s co-worker, Nell, met Leah and I at the Chiang Mai airport, and escorted us to a guest house (like a hotel) where Leah had made arrangements to stay for the night. We all got some dinner and then I crashed with Leah in a lovely room with air conditioning, a hot shower with shampoo and soap dispensers (though I think I might have washed my hair with soap), and wireless Internet.
The next morning, it was off to Nan by bus. The girl at the front desk of the guest house was nice enough to drive me to the bus station. After purchasing my VIP bus (A/C, toilet) ticket (for only 147 baht!! Get used to me commenting on the price of things because I’m still shocked at how cheap they are), I observed the following funny things while waiting for my bus to arrive:
- chuckling to myself when a women working at a ticket booth blow dried her hair at her booth and then realizing two minutes later when she spoke that she was a tranny.
- At 8 am, everyone stopped everything they were doing and stood at quiet attention while some song played over the loudspeaker. I realized I should stand about 5 seconds after everyone else stood.
- A barefoot monk carrying an urn in one hand and a grocery bag with toilet paper in the other.
Then came the 6-hour bus journey to Nan, which incidentally was on a “fan bus” - no air conditioner or toilet in sight. I sat in the aisle seat of a 3-seat row next to a man and his wife. As soon as I sat down, the man and his wife switched seats so that the woman was sitting next to me. The woman across the aisle asked me to help her clasp her bracelet, and within 3 minutes had written her cell phone number on her business card, handed it to me, and pushed a pen and her address book into my hands so that I could provide her with the same information. I was actually thankful that I had no idea what my address or telephone number was so I didn’t have to lie. She turned out to be very nice and spoke enough English to translate what the ticket taker said and the names of the places we stopped. She also made me promise to call her next time I was in Chiang Mai. The bus ride was hot but not too bad, and it was a nice chance to see the countryside, which was green and lush. We stayed on the highway for the whole trip as well – not a dirt road in sight.
I arrived safely in Nan on Saturday afternoon, and my boss, Ajarn Prakop (ajarn is the Thai word for teacher and Prakop is her first name), met me at the bus station. She and her husband drove me to my house. I live with the other 2 PiA fellows stationed here, Steph and Katie. We have the second floor of a building all to ourselves. We each have our own bedroom, with A/C, and our own bathroom, which is not American-style but rather a room with a toilet, a shower head, and a drain in the floor. The sink is in my bedroom, and it drains out of a pipe in the bathroom and across the floor and down the shower drain. There is a common room that Steph and Katie turned into a makeshift kitchen before I got here (they arrived a week before I did). The hallway that connects our 3 doors is out in the open, with only half walls and no windows. It makes for a nice view. There is also a small deck off of Steph’s room where we spend a lot of time. It overlooks our neighbor’s houses and a coconut tree. My room also has an entryway. I bought a rug and put up pictures, so it’s starting to feel more home-y. Definitely still a lot of blank wall space though if you want to send along your favorite pictures! It’s so hot here that I would basically live in a box if it was air conditioned, and my room is decidedly nicer than that. It’s bigger than my dorm room from last year.
Our house is about a 2-minute bike ride from the school, which is called Bandon Sriserm Kasikorn School. The only word I know in the name is “school”. You’ll notice I said bike ride – our bikes are our main and pretty much only mode of transportation in Nan. There is no public transportation here. We ride our bikes everywhere. All the bikes I’ve seen here, even the new ones being sold in the store, have a seat built in above the back tire. I’m getting better at biking and remembering not to make right turns into oncoming traffic. My bike is pink and it has a basket.
At school, I am teaching grade 5, grade 6, and kindergarten. At work, I’m now officially Ajarn Kirsten…sort of. Kirsten does not roll off the Thai tongue very easily. I teach 19 hours of class a week. I mainly teach 5/1 – top level fifth graders. I see all my other classes (5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 5/5, 6/1, 6/2, 6/3, 6/4, K 2/1, K 2/2) only one hour a week. When I am not teaching, I am at my desk in the school’s English Resource Center. The kids can come in and read English books, watch English movies, or play English video games. Teaching is nerve-racking at first and I don’t really know what I’m doing with the kindergarteners, but the kids are all very enthusiastic and respectful. Every morning when we arrive, we are met with choruses of hellos and “Shake hands!” from the kids on the playground, which is made only slightly less charming by the kids’ sticky Popsicle hands. We usually try to convince them to high five instead.
Our house is also about a 2-minute bike ride from the center of town. There are many shops in Nan, and they are all clustered along a few main roads. I’m still trying to sort out directions and locations of places here, but there is definitely a center of town and it is bustling. The streets are crowded during the day with bikes, cars, and mostly motorbikes. Interestingly enough, there are also 3 7-11’s in Nan. I want to take more pictures of the town itself, but honestly, I stand out very much already as a foreigner (I have seen, at most, 4 other foreigners and never more than once) and I don’t want to draw even more attention to myself by being that foreigner who is always taking pictures. I’ll try to take more pictures when people are more accustomed to me being here. Even just riding around on the streets, we are met with many “Hello!”s, a few “Beautiful!”s (which is not too shabby), and even one “Sup yo?”. It is simply impossible to blend in, and I am getting used to being stared at.
Wow, this is ridiculously long. I think that’s enough for now. I will try to update as often as possible, but we don’t have Internet access at home and have to rely on Internet cafes. My apologies to anyone who is still reading this. It’s just so hard to figure out what to tell people when even the everyday stuff in my life, like what I wear (no tank tops – far too scandalous), what I eat (no longer a vegetarian – basically impossible here especially because the school serves us lunch), even how I eat (fork in my left hand, spoon in my right), is new or different. If there’s something you really want to hear about, ask and I’ll do my best to explain. Hope everyone is well at home.
