June 29th

Time is a funny thing. There's so little of it when you need it but so much of it when u have nothing to do. Weekends are so boring here i almost wish it was Monday already so that we can just fast forward to graduation and home time. 

This afternoon i went to the market and picked up a dragon fruit, some mangosteen and a bunch of lil bananas. Market shopping isn't as fun anymore =(, the novelty is going away. 

July 7th (Chattachuk)

Yesterday was my first trip to Chattachuk. This is an area where there are lots and lots of street stalls that sell random things. From normal things such as cell phone cases, key chains, bags, clothes to things like pet squirrels, large art paintings, sculptures, Popsicle stands, chocolate banana stands and many other random things. I met up with Tricia at school (she had to teach Saturday) then we taxied to the BTS. Shes quite familiar with how sky trains work and stuff (she used to live in TO) which i was very grateful for. I decided to try and get to school via bus for the first time and ended up transfering to the wrong one. When i hopped onto the second bus it seemed like it was going in the wrong direction. So i asked the bus driver if this was the right way to go to school. With his broken English and body language he told me i was on the wrong side and that i had to take the 147 in the other direction. Its amazing how body language is pretty universal everywhere. I crossed the street and ended up taking a taxi to school just cause i was gonna be late meeting Trish at school.  Our day started out here

The BTS reminds me of Harry Potter where they take the train to Hogwarts haha. Sky trains dont really go too fast here so it was good that we got a seat. Right after we got off the train we were greeted with a line up of typical street stalls selling things then as we got closer to the entrance of the market there was a crazy coconut guy that would yell everytime he opened a coconut for a customer. He was very enthusiastic and quite entertaining to see. One of the girls at school described Chattachuck as slumdog millionaire style. It is very dirty and lit very poorly. You have the option to walk around outside on the street or in the back allyways of the stands. We opted for the allyway bc you can see more while you walk. After sometime, we ended up at the art section where there was large painted murals of elephants, tigers and other Thai things. These would be art pieces you would see in restaurants or offices. They also have shipping service so that if you bought lots of stuff or large items they could ship right from the market for you. 

Bartering was the best part of this market. They are used to foreigners ("forangs") so their English is pretty good, if not they always had calculators on hand to punch in numbers. Once you look at something and ask a price they will start the bartering, and wont leave you alone. I was leisurely looking at a purse was curious how much it was. Starting price was 1800B. I didnt really want to spend that much so i said thank you, hoping she would walk away. She asked what price i was looking for but i just said "just looking". She kept pestering me so i cut her price by 50% in hopes of her going away. She met me in the middle and said 1000B. Next thing i knew she was packing up the purse and i was paying lol. It happened SO fast! I was more cautious the rest of the shopping day lol. Trish bought some Thai silk to make a uniform for 450, starting price was 800B so she did pretty good. I was thinking of buying some too and getting a tailor to make me a Thai uniform but i dont think id really wear it any other time after this trip. 

I was really surprised at how many Chinese ppl were at this market. I eaves dropped and learned about some stand that made really good milk tea and that the market also sold chipmunks and squirels! When we stumbled upon the pet section of the market we saw very strangely odd squirels. No photos are allowed so i couldnt take a pic. There were also puppies being sold at the market that were super cute! As cute as they are we wondered about their history and if they came from puppy mills =(

There were cute little poms but there were too many ppl clustered around to take a good pic

We were getting pretty hungry and was very intrigued by one of the restaurants that serviced juice in a vase. When we sat down we were given hand towels. To my surprise when i went o grab the towel it was cold! So used to hot towels in Wpg but it makes sense to have cold ones here. I saw ppl wipe their face and legs with them =S just like how some Winnipegers do =S.

The set up was modern yet homey feeling (as you can see fr the photos of where we sat). Service was very friendly and warm. There was lots to choose from for drinks, i settled on a peach, green apple mint one:

This was SO refreshing! If you have access to a blender you should try this combination with some ice

 I ordered their signature dish which was Pad Thai with Prawns. When my food came out there was this strange looking crustacean on top. I didnt want to dirty my hands so i gave it to Trish. She said there wasnt much to eat inside.

I took a video of the setting, hopefully you can watch it here:

 We were both pretty tired and full after we ate and was ready to call it a day at the market. We took the train back to Siam where we needed to transfer to the other line. In Siam, there is a super baller mall with all the brand names you could think of. Trish was looking at a Prada purse at the mall and thought that it was real. I told her that real Prada wouldnt be sold in the market even if it was flawed. So we went into a real Prada store so that i could show her the price. There was no price to be found on the purses and we didnt dare to ask haha. The store was so high end that ppl wore black gloves when handling products!

At the entrance of one of the department store was this painted guy. I didnt realize he was real till ppl started to cluster around him!

The funnest part about Siam mall is the eating floor at the bottom. There were SO many cool places to eat. We at the best ice cream mochi! There were so many flavors. There was also a stand that made ice cream on the spot for customers by injecting liquid nitrogen into the bowl of ice cream mix in a kitchen aid. Tucked behind all the food and restaurnat is a grocery store! OMG this was the best! They had so many samples of cheese and meat it was like Cosco - with a cross of De luca and La Grotta! This store catered to Western ppl, as you could find things like KD, poptarts, vegemite and many other white ppl things. They also had Wagyu beef. It looked so marbled it think itd be gross to eat - but who am i to criticize, a slab of that meat makes any steak at 529 look cheap. We spent a solid 2 hours wandering that grocery store haha! Trish likes food to so it was great that we stopped there. 

By the time we got home it was already shortly after 10, and we were both exhausted. None of Jan's stuff got done yesterday so thats the goal for today *sigh*. Good thing all my marking is done for this weekend, just gotta prepare the little guys for exams next week. 

For those of you who may have missed my instagram post here is a great answer from one of my students in grade 5 science class

June 28th

At las its Friday! Time is flying by very quickly. Next week will be the last week before the kids have exam review week! So needless to day my days are filled with urgency to get the kids to hand in everything, madly marking everything and just keeping afloat. Today is also payday! WOOOHOOO haha, after school Andy Kim and I went to have sushi at the mall. It was pretty cheap! My dinner was $10 Cdn, and it was a tuna unagi rice bowl. We also split a huge nirigi platter - man was it good! Kim and i have never eaten large fish eggs nigiri form
before so we did it together haha.

Flipping through the menu i think James wouldve like eating this. I didnt order it tho, looked like too much work to eat

Andy lost a bet that he was gonna quit smoking so he was originally gonna buy me dinner but instead he can just buy me dessert. I decided on Bearded Papa and got not one but THREE! As we were walking to it was getting super excited despite my tummy full of sushi haha!

The whole time i was eating these cream puffs i was analyzing WHY they tasted SO good. And then i realized it! The flakyness is bc they use shortening and or butter in the choux paste...ALOT of it too. So its almost like a croissant but not quite. After confirming this with scrutinizing eyes....i dont think ill ever enjoy Bearded Papas as much anymore =(. Oh well three good cream puffs will always be a great memory haha!

While walking around the mall we went into this store and i saw the biggest fly ever! It was just chilling out on a stack of yellow tshirts and right next to it was a rack of tshirts with a FLY on it! lol. The three photos are of a live fly that just sat on the shirt. His eyes were HUGE and rather long compared to any flies ive seen lol. Maybe the fly was looking for a friend haha i dunno.







Anyways its only 11pm but i am so cashed from a long day of school and eating haha. Hope you enjoyed this post, hopefully ill have more interesting things to post soon =)

June 20th (wai cru day)

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but my days havent been too interesting so didnt want to bore you with that.

Today was Wai Cru day which means teacher appreciation day. The students prepared bouquets for the teachers yesterday and practiced songs to be sung . All the  teachers were talking about how enjoyable and fun it was that i kind of hyped up my expectations. Once it was time to go to the gym we sat for an hour and a bit, sang some songs and my class gave me flowers. That was all. lol. This basket was filled with a variety of bouquets, flower rings of jasmine blossoms and bundles of assorted flowers. A large half of my class each gave me one so i had a large basket full of em.

The ring of flower im holding is from one of my students who was very sick for a few days and actually gave me a bag of fruits and goodies to show the parent's appreciation for my efforts. It was very thoughtful and a great surprise to have an admin to come to my desk with a gift bag from a student. The bag had rambutan, fruit that's similar to lychee and pulled pineapple.

Anyways back to the flowers...unfortunatley the flowers are very sweet so ants love to crawl all over them, and so bringing them home would prove to be a terrible idea. We had to throw them out at school or bring them home to throw out.

After wai cru we went back to the office where i opend my drawer to snack on some crackers....to find that the bag had been chewed open by a mouse!!! The house left poop in my drawer too >_<! I ended up throwing alot of my food away since i dunno what else this furry guy walked on, pooped on or whatever. Thankfully my pound of Starbucks was safe =) I found a tin can that would keep it safe =). Our work desks have holes in case if you had cables for computers and such so thats where the furball got into my desk  drawers. I taped it up good so hopefully that'll keep em out.

Life in Thailand has been goin well for me. Lots of planning, balancing and accommodating with constant changing plans (like last minute due date spring on you, cancellation on observations). Night classes haven been going well too almost finished another coarse.The next coarse is self directed (with the witch prof) which will be nice since i wont have to rush home every day to shower, cook dinner and goto class. I find that my life really revolves around food...alot more than other ppl. I love shopping for food, hunting for food, eating food, thinking about food...thankfully im not a junk food monster haha.

School ends at 330, then there is a homework classes that go till 4. Parents pay extra for this so not all students will attend. My homework class is my P5/1 and there is only 10. I find that its such a great opportunity to bond with the kids, learn more about them and develop a better understanding of them.

This weekend is Saturday classes for me which means i teach a small group of kids a pre selected lesson. These are kids i normally dont teach which will be an interesting change of pace. I look forwards to the challenge.

June 11th

Sitting in class and having the longest and boring-est discussions. People just keep on asking “what if” questions >_<.  It is storming outside rather intensely. Our classroom is across the basketball court from our apartment – thankfully it is covered so when class is done we won’t get wet walking there

 Anyhow night classes started this week and so my day looks something like this:

Wake up at 545, leave at 630

Get to school at 7, teach at 830 – 4 (which includes half hour of homework class at the end of the day)

Night class 545-830

Everyday seems to fly by since it is always filled to the brim with things to do. Ive managed to maximize time by bringing lunch to the office to eat (from the cafeteria) so that I could multi task.  Cooking food while marking (in the apt) so that in the morn/dinner I just need to warm it up. Weekends are also jam packed because that is the only time to prep and stock my awesome looking fridge. Have I showed you my stocked fridge? Haha. I absolutely love my rice cooker because I just throw food and water in there and not need to worry about things burning while I shower or whatever.

We finally got our school uniforms yesterday and it was such an exciting day – esp because mine turned out as best as the uniform can look. I ordered 2 dress 2 tops and 2 skirts. My fav on kind looks like a stewardess uniform but I really like it. The skirt n shirts are only ok, not the best

At the end of the month there are about 3 school days in which classes are cancelled because they have teacher appreciation day – students give thanks to us =D and we offer them blessings. Although things are strict sometimes, there is some leniencies too – my kids were really good so I rewarded them by taking them to play outside for half a class – un educated based. I was surprised to that they were ok with this, but it was a very nice break =)

YAY class is over, so that'll be all for this post...back to my room to cook rice and wash up for bed, so tired 

June 6th

It's been a little while since i last wrote, marking and planning has taken up alot of my time.  Here in Thailand we teachers don't have access to a photocopier.  Everything gets sent to the copy room which they have a designated person that they hired from a company to do all of our copying.  Usually it takes a day or two. These machines are also primitive....so they don't stable. But thankfully they can collate (photocopy booklets in order).  If stapling is required, u must tape the corners so the kids (even in  my P5 class) don't get poked by accident.  So MORE time is needed to assemble.  This is what a finished two page worksheet needs to look like:

My class tomorrow also gets to lay w iPads to learn about the digestive system.  I was busy preparing a workbook for the last night.  The finished product looks pretty good, i hope they'll enjoy it. 

Yesterday i also went to big c all by myself on a BUS! Fare is 6.5B so five or six times as cheap as a cab ride wouldve costed.  I ordered a larger fridge and was about to buy a larger electric cooker when i stumbled on a rice cooker! GENIUS! It's big and i can steam food in it. So excited that i ripped it open as soon as i got home.  

The main reason y i wanted to buy a new fridge and an easier way to warm my food is because later on when i have night classes again i will not have time to do anything other then have my head stuck in books - studying, prepping, marking, lesson planning.....so eating will not be much of a priority so if i can designate the least amount of time cooking during the week itll be the best idea to maintain sanity. 

I also found some pretty tasty sprinkles that i can put on my rice.  We have this in Canada too but its a made in Japan product and its quite costly. 

This one was about 28B and was pretty good.  Very well seasoned and tastes great in congee. As a matter of fact I'm thinking I'm gonna bring this to school tomorrow morning =D

Some other fun things i ought from big c include frozen soup w rice and a bag of yogurt that came w a cute lil bag

The soup was pretty disappointing especially because the pic looked amazing >_<.  Oh well it was food in my belly haha

I stayed up a lil later than normal last night and felt like such a zombie today.  Normally i try and hide my yawns while i roam my classroom to make sure kids are working because of the CCTV.  If on a normal day i already yawn today i figured would be worse so i decided to try thai red bull.  It's rally actually just tastes like normal red bull but not carbonated. I was also craving a steamed bun (from sev)

Need to go get some shut eye now.

June1st (Chinatown)

Yesterday Andy and i went made a trip to Chinatown with high hopes of getting some tasty dim sum. After taking a taxi, sky train and a subway we got to Chinatown only to find out most hinge opened at 3-4!   The subway was pretty neat - since we didn't have a pass card we bought a token that u scan when u leave the gate.  It's a lil black plastic coin similar to some key fobs that people get at work. Afterwards when u leave the station u just deposit at the last gate. 

The dim sum place we went to was pretty crappy but very cheap.  Everything on the menu was 20B so not even a dollar each.  Only two pcs per 

We had three rounds of food haha.  Basically ordered everything on the menu (there was a back page too) in ital our bill was about $10 cdn haha! The best thing was steamed custard bun...kinda hard to mess that up i suppose. 

This dim sum was pretty good just because it had a huge piece of duck egg yolk on it! Lol

After eating we wandered the streets and came across SO many shops that sold shark fin soup and displayed shark fins and mouths in the front of the store

LOOK AT ALL THOSE TEETH!!!!

The markets were all wholesale which means u have to buy in multiples.  Some stores u must buy 3 or sometimes 12 pieces! It's easy if your choosing stickers, jewellery etc but picking more than 1 purse when choices are limited is hard. Look at these super fun stickers for my kiddies

After a few hours of market walking  we gota kinda bored so we hit up the mall where i bought a pair of shorts and two polos for sports day at school.  I was also thinking when i go visit temples i can wear this too since u have to have your shoulders and knees covered. When ever i think of khaki dress pants and polos i think Koreans lol. But yea they were cheap $5 for a "Polo" shirt haha