Eight Weeks and...Not Really Counting

Well, I landed in Chiang Mai two weeks ago today. This is causing the weird feeling you sometimes get when traveling that you’ve been in a place forever and not just 14 days. But I also realized, while waiting out the afternoon rain at a local coffee shop and making new friends with a little Pomeranian who apparently lives there, that already we only have about eight weeks left in Thailand. Which really isn't very long. Coincidentally, maybe, today I also finally noticed that other feeling you get when moving somewhere new: you're actually kind of living there and not just visiting.

A few reasons for that feeling (this will be another long post):

Yesterday I gave my first real “English lesson,” informal though it was. A group of five Chinese students who study at Payap University have been visiting the Zone for several months now and have worked very hard on their English (two of them are in the picture on the left). They came to Thailand with six years of practice reading and writing English—and no practice whatsoever with speaking. I helped one of them with a fairly difficult vocabulary and sentence-writing homework assignment, and I was very impressed with her near-perfect grammar. But it’s still difficult for us to understand one another, which is a large part of our purpose in being here as interns: give anyone who’s interested a place to practice their English just by hanging out with native English-speakers.

So far, it’s actually been pretty easy building some of these relationships with Thai and Chinese students: they want to be friends with foreigners and practice their English in hopes of finding better jobs in the future, and as clueless “farongs” learning about Thailand we need all the help we can get.

Speaking of teaching English, it looks like I’ll be able to teach some sort of weekly, casual “advanced English” class each to students who are already fairly fluent in English and want to improve their vocabulary, knowledge of idioms, and so on. I have a TOEFL book we’ll work through at their own pace, and I doubt there will be many people coming. Both those things, I think, will work well. By the way, flipping through the TOEFL workbook I’m amazed that anyone learns English and that so many people work so hard to do so. I was having trouble with some of the exercises, like:

Rearrange the letters in bold at the end of the sentence to make a word with the same meaning as the italicized word: "The transformation is accelerated by adding salt to the solution." satheden.

Difficult, no? So my sincere admiration and applause to all ESL students.

Speaking of language, I am bound and determined to leave this country knowing how to say more than just “hello,” “how are you?” “thank you,” “nice to meet you,” "pineapple," and "sticky rice." And "pad thai," which doesn't even count. I figure if I’m here teaching English, then it’s only fair that I try my best to learn some Thai. So, today I spent an hour drinking my iced mocha and listening to audio lessons in Thai, writing down the words and pronunciations of the native Thai speaker as best I could. I felt quite accomplished. And of course when I went back to hang out with our Thai friends at the Zone, I remembered close to nothing. But if they can learn English, I can learn Thai. Mark, the long-term intern here, also tried teaching me a few letters and words in the Thai alphabet. Ideally, this will help me order at restaurants and get a somewhat better bearing while living here. Realistically, I’ll probably leave Thailand able to spell my name and “pad thai.”

Speaking of leaving here, I would kind of rather not. It’s been wonderful meeting so many friendly, hospitable Thais and getting to know them better. I've said it before, but the food is delicious. Even the fish balls, which contrary to what it might sound like are actually just meatballs made of fish meat. I’m still mustering the courage to pop a few fried insects. In the meantime, I’ll eat my weight in pad thai.

Speaking of eating my weight, I decided it was time to start running again, so I took an evening jog around Payap’s campus. I toured the campus for the first time just yesterday (finally, I know), and it’s beautiful. Flowers and trees are everywhere--it kind of feels like being in a jungle--and the campus is linked by half-grown-over bridges crossing the ponds where the lily pads are blooming. In the evening, crickets and cicadas and frogs and a million other creatures buzz and chirp and make a thousand other noises that provided a much better rhythm for running than songs on an iPod.

Speaking of...well it's off topic but here's a picture of our group:

But I could go on for a long time about all this; in fact, I already have. So until next time, I miss you all and love you more!