5.31.12

I was going to begin this post by saying “I don’t even know where to start.” Then I realized that was simply not the truth. I will just start out in the morning…where I always do.

We did end up going to the student orientation after all. And by “we” I mean myself, the two reps from Andrew Biggs Academy (Phil and Tong) and the two Thai English teachers. Patricia was still in Malaysia working out the visa fiasco and Tom was suddenly “ill”. Only we didn’t know he was sick until we called his room after knocking on his door two separate times. Fifteen minutes after we were supposed to have left. Yeah…

Anyhow, during the ride to Hat Yai Park I was able to talk with both Phil and Khun Apple regarding the events of the last few days. Long story short, the person who actually brought us to Thailand and promised us jobs (which technically he provided us with), Bruce, had made various promises to both the teachers and to ABA with regard to the position and the teachers he was providing. He basically told us we got him fired and wished us the best of luck.

I can’t say enough good things about Andrew Biggs and his staff. Khun Apple was wonderful and told me that she wanted to make sure we were ok and to let us know that we are going to be taken care of—that you don’t just treat people the way were were treated. We were to be hired directly by ABA with no middle man. Awesome. I let her know that I personally never thought ill of ABA and that I was so very appreciative of all they were doing for us.

We got to Hat Yai Park (huge and gorgeous!) and all the students were in the pavilion arranged by class, I think, and standing listening to the school’s anthem. Phil provided me with my ABA polo shirt and we were ready to start. We introduced ourselves to the students and then got to do some fun games and songs with them. It was so fun to participate in an interactive learning experience. Phil started with “If You’re Happy and You Know It…” One group of students wasn’t participating at all so he made them come up front and they had the option of doing the hula or a King Kong gorilla dance. The hula elicited a lot of laughs from everyone. Next, he and Tong demonstrated an activity where two students would face each other and then they would need to hop three times to the left, three to the right, three to the back and three to the front. Then they would Rock, Paper, Scissors. Whomever lost would have to get behind the winner and place their hands on the winner’s shoulders. The winners would all pair up over and over again, including the train of people they had behind them until there was one winner. At the end, he had all the winners sit down around the outside. There were definitely more people on the winning team than the losing one. Obviously, a lot of the wrong people sat down. So, he had the “losers” sit down where they were and made the winners stand up and do the gorilla dance instead. It was so much fun! Everyone had a good time.

I think the funniest part of the morning was when we wanted all the students to learn one phrase in English. “I am getting better and better at English.” It was really difficult to get them to participate and repeat the phrase so we had a volunteer student come up to the stage to set an example for the rest. The first question he was asked by Tong was “Boy or girl?” His response was “Lady boy!” Everyone had a laugh. Tong said we had to call him Lady Gaga, not Lady Boy, because lady boy was rude. In the States, a teacher wouldn’t have even considered asking that question. They are much more accepting and matter-of-fact here. Phil told me that one time he was trying to act out tall, short, thin and fat. The first three he had no problem with. Then he said while he was trying to figure out how to act out ‘fat’, the Thai teacher just brought one of the obese students up to the front and was like “Fat.” An American parent would have filed suit so fast it would make your head spin. Here, it is what it is. He was overweight and there’s no pretending he wasn’t.

Back to my story.

After we were done with our portion, we were sitting with the Thai English teachers and Khun Tippawan (the mayor’s wife). They were asking me how the housing situation was coming along. I said that I had been shown one place the day before and that it just didn’t cut it. Let them know that we at least wanted an apartment with a kitchen. Then I found out why we may have been having trouble getting options. An apartment here is different than back home. They don’t have kitchens. Condominiums have kitchens. We didn’t know to ask Neung to look for condos.

In addition to owning the school, Khun Tip owns properties as well. She had a guesthouse with 4 bedrooms that she offered to let to us. It is in Songkhla, 30 minutes away. But totally worth the drive. I will get to that in a minute…

Before even taking us to the property, Khun Tip took Tong, Phil and myself to lunch in Songkhla. It was the most amazing meal in the most amazing location. Seafood on the beach. Staring out over white sands and turquoise water with (what I believe was) Koh Maeo in the distance. THIS is idyllic Thailand.

Side note: Andrew Biggs. On the way to lunch, I actually spoke with THE Andrew Biggs. He is absolutely lovely. He reiterated that he wanted to make sure we were taken care of and that we understood that at no point were they unhappy with us teachers. Just with the situation with Bruce. We had a great chat for about 15 minutes. The more and more I deal with the people directly related to ABA (or, in this case, the man himself), the more and more comfortable and relieved I feel. It’s going to work out.

Lunch consisted of seafood Tom Yum (I was able to avoid the tentacles), a massive pile of cracked crab in a curry sauce (lots of claw meat), seafood woon sen, steamed rice, Som Tam and an appetizer of fried rice cakes that you dip in a pork curry. For dessert, two plates of fresh watermelon and pineapple. The pineapple here is less acidic than the stuff back home. Still sweet, only now I can eat more of it because it doesn’t rip my hard palate apart. Of course, I also had chai yen nom (cold milk tea). Eating politely here can be misconstrued as not enjoying your food. I definitely made sure that it was clear my meal was delicious. My hands had the evidence all over them when I was through with the crab…

After lunch, we headed to the flat. Which was actually a house. In a rather posh neighborhood. Five minutes walk to the beach. And she was leasing it to us for 3,000 each. Wow. Four very large bedrooms on the top floor. The master suite had a balcony. Which I put dibs on. One full bath upstairs and one full bath downstairs. Very large bathrooms with western toilets (bonus!). A grand living area, big dining room and huge kitchen that actually wraps around the back of the house in an ‘L’ shape. The front garden is large and all tiled with an awning and tile bench seats. Meh. I guess this place will do in a pinch. We will also have door-to-door taxi service from home to school that will be split at least 4 ways and cost 80 baht round trip. In a month, it will cost less than $20 per person to get to school and back. Really breaking the bank here…

We headed back to Hat Yai at I-don’t-know-what-time in the afternoon. On the way, we stopped at City Duck Coffee. Very modern coffee shop. A little gimmicky with the duck theme, but we all enjoyed it. You know I had chai yen to drink.

Side note: I hate iced tea. American iced tea. I have never liked the stuff. I can’t get enough of the Thai iced tea, however. Thank you, Spencer, for introducing me to it.

Stopped at the school when we got back in to the city. Phil and I were introduced to more of the teachers (it is going to take me forever to remember all the Thai names. I can’t even remember their nicknames) and given another tour of the school. Only four classrooms have computers and overhead projectors, but the entire school has wi-fi. We can use our own computers in the classroom if need be.

Lots of wai-ing today. As we were leaving the school and making our final ‘wais’, Tong said to me, “I love the way you wai. It is so beautiful!” I want to try and embrace the important parts of the Thai culture, so that was a really wonderful thing to hear. I watched a video on how to wai properly before I left the States…

After dropping some stuff off at Phil’s hotel room so we didn’t have to drag it around, we stepped out to go shopping. Phil needed to buy bags of Malaysian coffee for friends in Bangkok. Tong needed to buy, well, whatever she saw that she might have wanted (which happened to be a cute little top that I wish I had the tiny Thai body to wear). And I had to buy pants and shoes for work. Shoes, because all I had brought with me were flip-flops. And pants because I had to buy little ankle stockings to obscure or cover my feet tattoos and they would have looked ridiculous with a skirt. I purchased a pair of jelly shoes for the first time since the 80s. They were actually really cute and have insoles, so they aren’t going to get all slick and gross throughout the day. Then I found the most awful pair of pants. Ok, maybe they aren’t the worst pants in the world, but they are pretty bad. Black polyester, loose-fitting, floor-length, with an elastic waist that I have to wear just below my navel because of the long inseam. Fortunately, the polo shirts are thick enough that you can’t tell I have high-waisted elastic pants on… Trying them on was interesting. Since we were shopping in one of the maze-like indoor kiosk markets, there weren’t any changing rooms. What they do is provide you with a changing skirt. You put it on, take off the pants you are already wearing, try the new ones on and then reverse the process. It works. Best part? The little old lady who sold me the pants asked where I was from. I told her “America”.  Her response?  “Oooh, you are so beautiful.”

I moved to the right country.