Quote of the Day: "If it's important to you, you will find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse."
(So we're here, in Phichit, sounds like Pitch-it)
Let me tell you first off, how incredibly weird it is to be
in a country and literally not able to communicate with anyone you meet except
for with smiles and nods. Its crazy. Anyway the adventure began before I even
left San Antonio, when an old man, 75 to be exact, sat right next to me and
almost immediately began singing/talking to himself. It made me feel pretty awkward
so I tried to talk to him, which made it even worse because I don’t think he
heard me, so I just turned away even more awkwardly. Eventually he started
talking to me and turned out pretty intriguing. He was a multi-millionaire who “would’ve
taken his own jet but sold them recently and hasn’t bought a new one yet.”
Baller.
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| (I'll learn how to flip it later, everything keeps going into Thai haha) |
Anyway, I met tons of really cool people including: A girl
from Japan, a 6th grader living in Guam with his military family, a
Graduate student from California studying in Japan, a medical worker going to
Vietnam, a gorgeous guy from Switzerland who travels the world to golf, and of
course my awesome new roommates and fellow teachers.
We stopped in Japan on the way, so technically that’s the
first country I’ve set foot on other than the United States. It seemed pretty
normal though, until I went to the restroom. When I got into the stall, the
toilet had so many buttons and stuff, it took me like three minutes to figure
out how to flush it, and don’t even get me started on the hand dryer haha. When
we finally got to Thailand, it was midnight there time. Surprisingly the
weather wasn’t any worse than San Antonio heat at summer time, so I was
prepared : ) Also they drive on the left side of the road! Our van was probably
the nicest I’ve ever been in and looked like it turns into a night club. When
we got to Phichit, I think we had traveled 32 hours total! Crazy.
When we got out of the van and saw our school, there was Thai
music playing from somewhere and this gorgeous building lies on beautiful
property surrounded with trees. This is when it finally hit me that I am
actually in Thailand, and staying in such a beautiful part at that. The Thai
guys helping us with our luggage would say stuff in Thai to us and then just
laugh as we tried to respond. Seriously everyone I’ve met in this country just
seems so happy.
Except for the driver and the guys who helped with our
luggage, none of which spoke English, we didn’t see anyone. Luckily the driver pointed
and showed me “toilet” which also has showers before he left. It was about 4 in
the morning and still dark so we took showers and then kind of moseyed around
looking at everything on the property, Which I was in awe with. When it started
getting lighter, the mist in the trees made everything seem so magical along
with the Thai music which was playing in the Temple across the street. As we
walked around and one of the teachers chased around the stray dogs, the guard at
the front of the school just laughed and kept smiling, then greeted us with the
typical Prayer Hands bow thing. I felt like I was doing all wrong but im
getting used to it.
Later we met Tang, who built the school and is our Native
Coordinator. She is Thai but went to boarding school in England since she was 9
so she has a British accent which you would never expect to come out of her. The
school is just as beautiful inside as it is out. When you walk into pretty much
any building in Thailand, including our room and the school, you take of your
shoes outside and leave them there which is pretty cool, the white tiles in the
school and our room are so clean I wouldn’t want to walk on them anyway.
She told us that teachers in their culture are considered at
the same level as parents and so a lot is expected out of them. For example we
need to dress professional and modest whenever we go out and we have to stay as
conservative as possible, for example we can’t wear colored nail polish unless it’s
the weekend! Haha
We have a couple cooks who bring us bread and jam every
morning for breakfast and then cook our other meals and bring them right to the
table in our room. The food has been exquisite so far. I LOVE Thai food. I didn’t
know what some of it was but none of us cared because it was so good, and we
were so hungry haha. After we ate lunch we went into the kitchen and all said
what sounds like “Cup cone Kah” and means thank you. (the only other word I know
so far other than hello) She said something back and laughed when we had no
idea what to say. Everyone is just constantly smiling at us and making us feel
so welcome. We are honestly the luckiest girls in the world. We keep feeling
like even though we came here wanted to serve the people, they just do so much
more for us.
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| (Our First meal! Delicious) |
PS. I’ve decided to make friends with the bugs and Geckos,
we’re going to be spending a lot of time together the next four months.
PSS Everything was in Thai when I was trying to post this, then I made it translate but some stuff it
Much More Coming Later <3
Nesha
