Farang and Frisbee in Thawangpha

Sawatdee Kraub (Hello)! Some random and hopefully coherent thoughts in this second blog post:
 

A view from my apartment

Despite the prior knowledge of my placement in a rural setting 12 hours north of Bangkok up in the mountains, I was still surprised to discover the extent of Thawangpha’s remoteness.  It’s pretty far out, literally and figuratively.  Thawangpha is in the province of Nan and off Facebook’s location map.  Luckily, I was placed with another frisbee and outdoors aficionado named Josh.  “Farang” is Thai slang for “foreigner,” and upon our arrival, Thawangpha’s “farang” population increased from 0 to 2.   

Our teaching coordinator at the Thawangpapittayakom School (still learning how to pronounce it) picked us up from the bus stop and graciously helped us settle in.  We received a dose of reality, however, when she informed us that we each would be teaching 20 classes a week to around 45 “naughty” students with low levels of English and WITHOUT the guidance of a teaching course book.  With my lack of teaching experience, I felt a little like Daniel being tossed into the lion’s den; hopefully I can tame the Thai students.  My coordinator also told me that male Thai teachers do not have beards, because it may “scare the children” (or perhaps because Thai men can’t grow them).  Even though I only hadn’t shaved for a week, I reassured my coordinator that I would lose the “beard” and make sure not to scare anyone (good thing she didn’t see my recent 3 month long beard…).  She then added that male teachers also don’t have long hair, to which I kind of just smiled and nodded, because that doesn’t fit my GAP YEAR plans... (similar to “the ringer” scene in “The Big Lebowski” when Walter wants to make the handoff with the self-proclaimed nihilist kidnappers and find out the whereabouts of “Bunny” Lebowski by “beat[ing] it out of them.”  After the nihilists inform the Dude that no handoff will be made in person, Walter says, “We can’t do that Dude, it fucks up our plan.”).  I don’t want to sound too unreasonable and stubborn, but I’m in Bumblefuck, Thailand for goodness sake!  I deliberately left working for “The Man” in Manhattan so that I could explore the Unknown, and that partially entails growing my hair out to unprecedented lengths (kinda ridiculous, I know).  So my plan is to forget that she mentioned anything and see what happens…

The Thawangpapittayakom School has a nice big soccer field that Josh and I play frisbee on each day.  The field is right next to our apartments, which are behind the school grounds, surrounded by lime green rice patties and grey and blue looming mountains.  It’s pretty epic.  On the first day we arrived, a local Thai army division was using one part of the field for basic training, including shooting practice.  The Thai men in uniform laughed at us “farang” wearing bandanas and tank tops and they were amused by our frisbee throwing.  It reminded me of the numerous times I would watch the Kenyon swim team rigorously practice, as I lazily lounged in the hot tub in my beach bathing suit.  “Mai pen rai” man, “it’s all good.”

Was ecstatic to see the school's field- perfect for frisbee

Contrary to the information we received during orientation, we are expected to speak some Thai in the classroom, especially to the lower English level classes (Josh and I know minimal Thai at this point, although we plan on learning as much as we can).  Thai has 44 consonants, 32 vowels, and 5 tones, so it’s kind of a bitch, but we’ll be practicing every day.  Often words with opposite meanings sound the same to the untrained ear.  For example, the word “klai” means both “near” and “far” and only differs by tone.  Similarly, the word “pa” has 5 different meanings based on tone!  So far I only know a few basic phrases and once embarrassingly said “hello” when I meant to say “thank you…”

                  Some Like it Hot

Not just the weather, but also the food!  If you ask for your food a little bit spicy, it’s the equivalent of spicy back West.  If you ask for spicy, prepare to cry.  Even if you ask for not spicy, it still can be spicy.  The majority of our meals, including breakfast, have consisted of some rice dish.  They got that sticky rice, man.  That sticky icky.

I’m looking forward to my first day of school AS A TEACHER tomorrow!  Josh and I have to give a short speech in Thai to the whole school.  That should be fun.  Mai pen rai, mai pen rai…