Only few days left here. I am eating a lot of delicious Thai deserts wrapped beautifully in banana leaves! I don't think I can find most of these back home. I'll have to go searching for good Thai food in DC. This calls for adventures (pssst pssst friends back home!).


So on Thursday the school-wide task (envisioned by the Vice Principal P Nitnoi who is also my "Thai mom") was for all the teachers to visit all their homeroom students at their homes and meet their guardians. P Nitnoi thought that this would be a great way for the school to connect with the students/parents and also find out how the school could better provide for the needs of the students, etc. P Wan and I took a motorcycle out early in the morning to various villages to visit about 10 students. None of us (not even the teachers) realized just how impoverished most of our students were. A lot of them live in these houses that don't even have all four walls. Just like some fabric hanging by a pole and a mosquito net on the floor where they sleep. None of the students I visited lived with their parents..just with a grandparent or another relative. A lot of their parents are divorced, gone, or laboring in Bangkok. I found out that one student worked multiples jobs (making straw mats, picking pineapples, and planting rice) to support herself and her grandmother (who could barely lift her head to say hello). I was trying really hard not to cry most of the time. I returned with a heavy heart and a lot of fresh tropical fruits from my students' families trees.

These are my students picking a fresh coconut for me. They were so good at chopping at the coconut with this big knife. And the coconut was so delicious!


Maybe it's all related but I've been wanting to try planting rice. I mentioned it again at dinner and at first everyone thought it was a joke. But after we ate a ton of food and had a drink or two everyone decided that a farang (a foreigner = me) CAN learn to plan rice. And we all got really excited and decided to do it together. So the next day P Wan, P Pla, P Thui, and I went off to a student's field to plant rice!

We went through this jungle to reach my student's field.


And it was so beautiful!


This is me getting started and my student looking at me skeptically. Everyone kept saying, "Can a farang really plant rice?"


But look, I did it! And everyone finally decided, "The foreigner CAN! (Dai! Dai!)"



And this is how I became a Thai farmer:


They asked me to bless the land in Issan language. Well, I was kind of delirious from trying to farm for the first time so I just said everything I could remember in Issan language: "Hello, thank you, let's go, delicious." I guess that wasn't really a blessing so P Wan helped me out and I repeated something really difficult-sounding and everyone was very satisfied and asked me to come to dinner (with chicken or beef!) at their houses. I should ask her what I said!


Gosh, beautiful rice fields really do take a lot of work. My body still kind of aches. I'm also kind of out of shape since I ride the motorcycle all the time. Also, I'm really afraid that the parts of the field I worked on are ruined and the rice won't grow! I hope the rice grows and all the farmers have a good season!



Last not but least...I hungout with snakes this weekend at the King Cobra Village. Everything was free:


It's a shame I wasn't wearing a cool outfit!

Sewon is a Thai farmer

I'm going to go get in a cool farmer gear and go plant rice today! I'm really excited about it. Tomorrow morning I leave very early to Laos. We're going to King Cobra village on the way back. I'm not sure what that is but I'm pretty sure I will get to play with cobras or something.

Right now there are these kids staring/giggling at me and hiding behind a tree. All the little kids in my neighborhoods know me even though I don't teach them! I was walking around the other day and some brave boys started shouting, "Ajarn Sewon! Ajarn Sewon! Hello! Good morning!" Also, it was like 5 PM! Haha, I'm going to go out and talk to the kids!

Memories to Keep

I had a very emotional morning visiting about 10 students at their homes and meeting their families. I'll write about it later after it sinks in more.

Until then, here are a couple things I want to jot down so I don't forget:

1) The VP of Education of Khon Kean was very kind and said that I was his "daughter" and took me to all these places (announcing to everyone that I was his daughter). My favorite was this beautiful temple in the mountains where young artist monks live. The mountains were breathtaking and the monks were blasting this beautiful Thai buddhist music (I don't know how to explain what it sounded like). I wonder where I can find that music.



2) My whole school planted trees together! I think I posed for a lot of photos pretending to plant trees and didn't really plant all that many trees... And then there is this photo of me being really silly next to the principal.



3) This is me and some of my favorite students! I'm really stoked that the students are warming up to me. Well, I think they're realizing that I'm a non-threatening goofball. I can't believe I'm leaving so soon! I'm going to really miss not hearing "I love you teacher Sewon Ka!" everyday. As Mike warned me, these students really steal your heart!


4) We went to this beautiful garden next to some library and this little girl followed me around. P Wan says she thought I was a celebrity! Well, I'm quite good at non-verbal communication now so I taught the little girl how to give high fives and I think she really liked giving high fives.



5) I would like to just say that P Wan is one amazing little lady and I'm such a big fan of her. She calls me "my little sister Sewon" and she brings me little surprises like frappucinos (I have no idea where she found that in rural Thailand!) or desserts and says "Su Su!" Thanks to her I can have conversations with everyone even though I can only speak Thai in simple sentences or words (well, at least I can put together sentences now!!). She is always full of energy and ideas for adventures. She also cooks really delicious Thai food and taught me how to make a couple essential dishes including som tam (essential for real Thais) and pad thai (essential for the farang like meee). She is also stylish and finds all the coolest things for me to wear (like a beautiful Lao silk skirt). And she is just so much fun to be around. Her dream is to be a fully billingual traveling storyteller and study children's literature. I hope she comes to D.C. sometimes soon so I can spoil her with delicious ice cream, fresh coffee, second hand/antique shops, e-street cinema, and spicy Korean restaurants...


I am counting the days until (not in any particular order) I can give my family a big hug, eat all the Korean food (I want some hot spicy soft tofu soup and kimchi and jjambong and kalguksu), eat at all the greasy chain restaurants (namely this particular bowtie mushroom pasta at the Cheesecake factory and a big hamburger at Three Guys), eat falafel and pizza in DC, try out American Thai food/make snobby comments about the lack of somtam, wear bootyshorts, speak English at a normal pace (with my usual slangs and expressions added), drive my car, watch television I can understand, watch movies not dubbed in Thai, and see my Taurin again (finally). And then move to Williamsburg, celebrate 4th of July with a bang (with courtney on skype on the table), and ace all my summer class courses (I hate science I hate science I hate science but I think I'm good at Physics). Et cetera. Et cetera.

BUT STILL I'm going to be soooo sad about leaving Wiang Wong Kot!

Becoming a Thai Celebrity and Wedding Stories

I guess I didn't mention this but I am a T.V. star! Well, not really a star but I was/am (not sure) on Thai television! I'm proud to say that my name on Thai television's history will forever be associated with...DINOSAURS.

E-TV came and filmed some of my school's Tourism Club students around the Dinosaur museum and fossil sites. And I was invited along to see the sites and participate (pretend to be a tourist...it was an easy task). I got to meet all the staff at the museum and we ate somtam and padthai together. Thanks to P Wan's interpretation, I told them witty stories about Korean food (some of the museum staff were big Korean culture fans). What would I do without P Wan?

Climbing all the hills and mountains to see the fossil sites was exhausting but the students were working so hard with smiles on their faces. I really like the Tourism Club students. I taught them about firm handshakes and small talk the other day.

Mountain Resort

My weekend began with drastic changes in plans. Instead of heading to Lao on Friday morning, I went to a mountain resort with all my school faculty and administration. As in, my school closed on Friday!

As I mentioned before, my school here is undergoing a huge change. The new principal has great visions for improving the school and I think the trip had two main goals: First, to communicate with school staff, neighboring schools' administration, and appropriate authorities about planning for the change (well, I couldn't really participate in this one). Second, make an opportunity for everyone gathered to relax, have fun, and recharge for the hard work ahead.


I think I am at Wiang Wong Kot at a very critical and exciting time. It's really amazing to be part of it. The mountains were breathtaking and I had such a good time. Everyone treats me like family and says, "Oh, Sewon is my beautiful daughter!" or "My little sister Nong Sewon!" This place is so special. I am going to be very sad about leaving Thailand! I promised everyone I'd return and I will! Also, let me add that I sang the Titanic theme song in front of everybody. No kidding! AND I got flowers from all the male teachers, including my school principal! By the way, the skirt I'm wearing was handmade by a minority group that lives in the mountains here. I got it as a present!


We came back Saturday night and all the English-speaking Thai teachers left town so I hungout with my Thai friends who don't really speak any English. We didn't realize how much of a language barrier we had because we've always had the P Wan or P Pui translating for us. Anyway, it turned out pretty fun and absurd. We were communicating in fragments of English, Thai, and Lao words mixed with grunts and gestures. I showed them photos of everyone at home so we could take a break from the rather exhausting conversation. The next day we woke up early to go to the bay to go swimming. Everyone thought I was crazy for only bringing a swimming suit... I had to borrow a t-shirt and long shorts (that's why I'm wearing over sized clothing in the photo)! We also ran into these two girls (well, one girl and one ladyboy) working on promoting some sort of a cell phone service who recognized me from Wiang Wong Kot. They took some photos with me and everyone thought I was a celebrity(?!). Oh Thailand!

I taught three classes today. I'm going to miss my students so much! And uh, I Sang Jingle Bells for my 3-2 class. I have no idea why everyone wants me to sing all the time (or why the requested song is always so strange...jingle bells in 85 degree weather?)! All I know is that Chris Robinson should come here so we can do a Pathetic Fallacy show. P.S. This photo is of my students after they took a bunch of photos of me with their cell phones. I started taking their photo and most of them ran away! They are so cute.

This weekend I'm going to Laos with P. Wan and some Thai teachers! I think they have plans to take me to some other places...I'm really excited. Plus, I'll get to avoid the foreigner price (sometimes I can pass as half Thai). I think everything turned out very well. As for what happened with Alice. I will only say that we had a much-needed long, honest, healthy conversation and I think we can drink some delicious tea together soon. In the meanwhile, we are both happy and comfortable in Thailand and headed home way way soon. Which reminds me, see you all so soon!