Last night I watched Amelie dubbed in Thai and ate street pad thai that cost less than $1. P. Oh says he has a great recipe for pad thai that will impress all my farang friends. Oh oh oh man. Watch out Lafayette block. I'll have to figure out sweet vegan versions of these dishes.

Finally, a picture of me and my dearest host teacher! This morning I took a bus with P. Wan for about an hour into central Khon Kean area. A beautiful ladyboy did P. Wan's makeup and we were in a great mood so we got some delicious chocolate ice cream! There are cute ladyboy students in my classroom, too. I love how beautiful and graceful they are. I think it's wonderful that ladyboys are appreciated in all of their fantastic grace even in rural areas.

So much happened today...it ended with an epic lesson on how to make som tam (papaya salad) and Thai green curry with coconut milk. Yum! Eeem mak mak! The best ending.

The good news is that I've started constructing basic sentences in Thai language and picking up on familiar words in conversations. I watch (or try to watch) Thai soap operas at night and try to listen to conversations more carefully. I can write my name in Thai now! I wish I had more time to dedicate to the language but I spend my time imagining ways to get my shy Thai students out of their shells and confidently speaking English. My teaching schedule for the rest of my time here has been set after a meeting with all the school English teachers. It looks like I will be teaching all 21 classes at least twice before I leave. My purpose is to make English fun and exciting!

I feel like I am at Wiang Wong Kot High School at a very exciting/critical time. They have a very new administrative staff and the new principal is a man of great vision. Yesterday all the faculty and students got together to plant trees around the school and had a massive clean-up. They are building a brand new library, renovating the faculty housing, and opening an English center. I am proud to say that I get to be a part of the great new vision to improve the English language education at the school (or I hope I leave feeling proud)! Alongside the 21 classes, I am also working on the English Club and the Tourism Club. I met the President of the Tourism club and he was really fantastic. Very bold and well-spoken. I'm so excited about all the changes that are to come!

I am getting used to the little geckos that live in my room and strange bugs. The food is delicious and everyone is so nice! The school community is really so good to me. I hope the mutual enthusiasm continues!

P.S. There is this funny dog that lives around the faculty housing and her name is Dengue Dengue. Like Dengue Fever! It's because the school principal thinks Dengue Dengue brings disease but the teachers take really good care of her. They wash her, feed her, and talk to her! And there are these big old cows that live next door to keep her company...

I am at this magical place of dinosaurs and mountains! Finally settled down to teach at Wiang Wong Kot High School and it is surrounded by a beautiful mountain called Pu Wiang. I arrived yesterday from Chaiyaphum and woke up early this morning. It is about 10 AM and I have already given a speech in front of the entire school and taught two upperlevel classes.

I am the first foreigner to ever come to this school so I think it's very important for me to leave a positive impression. Everyone is very excited. Lots of giggles and photographs!

My host is another young English teacher named Wan and she is really adorable. She actually moved into another teacher's room to give me her room. We live in the faculty housing located right next to the school and I think about 4 teachers live in one house. The house has four separate rooms and everyone sleeps on the floor. The school especially bought a brand new bed, furniture, appliances, and bedding just for me! They are so nice. The only part that is uncomfortable is that the bathroom is sort of outside in the dark with all the things that creep and crawl. Yes, the toilet is a squatter and it doesn't flush. And I have to shower with buckets of cold water! The great thing is that I am going to probably overcome my fear of bugs/insects. Or I am getting really good at trying to not seem like a squeamish silly foreigner...

I am excited about my time here! I hope I can come up with more ideas for fun games and lessons!

This weekend Wan is taking me to the city so I can get more teaching gear and then we're going to the dinosaur museum! She says she'll also take me to her hometown to visit her family and I hear her mom cooks some delicious Issan food! Everything feels like a dream!

Back to Thailand...

Sawaddee Ka! I'm back in Bangkok! So I guess I have been traveling nonstop for the past three weeks now. That's almost a month. I haven't been robbed and I haven't been raped. I don't want to jinx myself but I think it's been pretty great/safe traveling everywhere alone. Girl power, etc. Whoo! Well, I have a pseudo-travel partner now so it's even safer.

What crazy three weeks. I'm getting tan (even though that might not be a good thing in this country), making some progress on my Thai (enhanced experience with the taxi driver and impressing him with my skills and getting to my guest house super fast), getting strong, and becoming a hardass woman traveling woman (you can't scam me, bitches). But not so jaded, really. But I do miss home. I miss people who know me and appreciate me and care about me. I miss the hugs and the warmth. I miss my car and my bed. I miss ice cold water fountains and shopping without the stress of bargaining. But bargaining is fun.

Overall, there have been really wonderful people on the road. I write about them constantly in my moleskin. Traveling makes the world feel smaller!

It's strange to be back in Bangkok. It was my first destination and now it feels almost like home. I've been needing to run some errands so today will be dedicated to that. You know, getting more shampoo/contact solution/etc. Also, I lost my debit card. And my cell phone. AND MY LONELY PLANET SOUTHEAST ASIA ON A SHOESTRING. So I've been trying to bargain a bootleg copy of lonely planet for $5 but vendors just don't budge. I e-mailed my dad to take care of my card. I've needed a new cell phone anyway... (I'm just trying not to feel too bad about losing stuff).

Anyway, I am definitely ready to settle in one place so I can stop the unpacking, packing and just RELAX. I think we definitely need a big 4th of July party at 804. I gotta talk to Courtney, BESTFUTUREHOUSEMATEEVER. I'm so stoked about all our neighbors, guests, friends, lovers, all that. It's gonna be a supersweetsweetbomb year no kidding.

And hey, (I'm being so random..my head is everywhere) I've been coming up with exciting exercises to do with my Thai students. I can't wait until I meet them!

Communism?

These little kids are dancing to Backstreet Boys next to me. It's great. Also, Communism here in Vietnam is really interesting. There are these great propaganda posters everywhere and every morning around 6:30 AM this insanely loud announcement comes on. Our first morning in Hanoi Alice and I woke up in pain. We opened the window to our beautiful balcony and stared out the window. Some sort of horrible inspirational elevator music and a soothing female voice saying something in Vietnamese. And this message repeated itself at least 5 times. It would NOT stop. We stared out into the street. No one seemed fazed.

Later, we asked the hotel. Oh it's some message about health from the government. It comes on every morning. EVERY morning.

Hanoi, Vietnam

I'm drinking a bottle of coke at a rooftop cafe in Hanoi. There are stylish young Vietnamese, some foreigners, and free wifi. And Korean pop songs. Always Korean pop songs. Forever. And American Idol late night re-runs. We watch that every night. Sometimes we miss the good old States and need a dose of these things. Like cheesy teen flicks. Yum! Macdonald's! JK!

I've been out in the Halong Bay for the last few days which was incredibly beautiful. Alice and I went kayaking and went to some caves. The food was not so ideal (seafood dinner = cheapass frozen fish cakes) and I got sick but I am not complaining. I drank a Hanoi beer and I kind of passed out at night (traveling exhausts me sometimes) so I don't really know if sleeping on the boat was any different but waking up to a breathtaking view was amazing.

Today we walked around some new parts of Hanoi and got insanely lost but still managed to see Ho Chi Minh's dead body at the Mausoleum. We got lost again and found the Temple of Literature as well as a number of other really neat temples. Some parts of town has no foreigners and no one spoke English (I had to pee so baaaad!!!). It took so long to convince one Vietnamese lady to please let me use the restroom. She just stared at us really suspiciously and shook her head. A nice man helped convince her that we were harmless. We didn't mean to be suspicious-looking foreigners!! I need to learn how to say toilet in different languages. Seriously.

It's funny because Alice and I stand out so much here in very different ways. I'm starting to get sick of all the "Konichiwa" and "Hello" but I am sure that won't stop especially when we're in Northeast Thailand.

I leave for Bangkok early tomorrow morning. We'll go to training together and part ways for homestay and teaching. I'm excited to get settled as I need a bit more stability in my life. It's nice to have Alice with me. Finally, someone to laugh with whenver the Numa Numa song comes on at a cafe. I don't know what it is about Asia and the Numa Numa song. They love it.

I really like Vietnam. I'm going to miss it. Hopefully I'll return. The food here is so good. People are nice enough. I am stoked about Thailand! I posted a lot of photos on facebook and I'm uploading some videos now. I miss everyone especially a lot today!



Oh hey and there are actually photos of me now, thanks to Alice! They are http://picasaweb.google.com/alice.mcelhinney/Hanoi so you can check them out. :)