Brigid's most embarassing story

Teachers in Thailand have it made (I have already suggested to my sister that she move here and teach and that goes for Julie and Pam too. Although Jules may not have the same kind of entertaining stories that she has now, I know she could get used to how Thai teachers are treated). At any point a teacher can ask a student to do pretty much anything. If a group of students are playing a game a teacher simply has to walk up to them and then the youngest student in the group will leave so the teacher can play. If a teacher would like a chair or some water, they simply ask a student to go get it for them. The teachers are served lunch by the students who sit and watch them eat, ready to refill water or any food at any time. A teacher can even see a student at the market, outside of school grounds, and have said student carry their groceries for them regardless of what the student is doing. It is amazing and Brian and I have been lucky enough to experience this kind of treatment.
However, as wonderful as all of this is, it is nothing compared to how we are treated when we are with the director of our school. He treats us like a combination of his children and his trophies which he shows off to his other director friends.
The other weekend, Brian and I went to Sisaket to watch the students play footsong (indoor soccer with 5 people on each team and boundaries, very entertaining) and badmitton (not so entertaining as you can imagine). We were there with the teachers only and sat in the stands and really enjoyed cheering our students on. We even went out to a Thai disco with the teachers and drank whiskey and water which is apparently the drink of choice. The disco was pretty interesting and was more like a concert with the same band, but about 7 revolving singers and back up dancers who changed costumes everytime they were on stage. And Thai modesty definitely went out the window with these costumes of mini skirts and basically bra tops. Why I love Brian is because it wasn't the costumes that got his attention as much as it was that the women lacked any rhythm. It really bothered him to the point he said that he couldn't watch any more and that he was ready to immediately start teaching dancing at our school in order to stop this kind of tragedy from happening again. (Side note: we have since taught our students American dances including, but not limited to the water sprinkler, the shopping cart and in honor of Mike Ferrante, the Young Jocs "It's going down" motorcycle move from the video. We have pictures don't worry!)
But I digress, The Sisaket sports fesitival was a week long thing where the students slept on the floor of the gym and then got up in the morning to participate (again, this was something that bothered Brian terribly because he thought "this is no way to get ready for a game"). We spent the weekend with the teachers and then later in the week the director wanted to take us to see Thai boxing. When we arrived we went to sit with our students in the stands, but the director shook his head and pointed to these leather couches in the centerof the stadium. We sat there and were fed and provided water throughout the whole event. We were very comfortable with a fan blowing on us although it remained 99 F in the stadium. The director had the announcer tell the whole crowd that we were there which received big cheers from our students. As we watched I adjusted in my seat and realized I was sweating more than I had realized, but thought that it couldn't be too bad. I kind of whispered to Brian that I thought that the back of my legs were sweating where I was sitting on leather (who thought LEATHER was a good idea! And these couches are at ALL big events). I stood up slightly and I will never forget Brian's face when I turned around. It was a combination of laughing and sheer panic. I was not sweating a little, I had legitimate sweat marks from my bum to the middle of my hamstring. I did not know what to do so I adjusted myself so just the very edge of my butt was on the couch (you can imagine how awkward this looked). The I slid myslef awkwardly to the concrete seats next to the couches claiming they were "more comfortable." Then I thought I would make a run for the bathroom while the director went to go talk to a friend. So I slid off the couch made a run for the wall and shimmied along it (all the while Brian is watching and laughing). I turn the corner and there is the director and he wants to introduce me to his friends. I am not sure if anyone noticed, but I do know that directly after that interaction it was the director's idea to leave the Thai boxing stadium. I was so grateful when we finally got into the car and then he stopped and said "time for volleyball." Brian and I somehow managed a way for me to cover the sweat with my bag and a hankerchief (I am still not sure how we managed this, but thank you Greg Bruce and Talia for suggesting bringing the hankerchiefs). And of course , to add insult to injury, I get in there and they offer me hot coffee. The only thing that made me forget about the sweating was the fact that this was not just volleyball, but it was gay volleyball. I am not sure how to describe these young boys to you, but there was a lot of very stereotypical gay men movements, high pitched screaming and running around literally flapping their arms like fairies after every point. It was like nothing we have ever seen and certainly not at a sporting event featuring 16-18 year old boys. Anyhow, by the end of the match the sweat had dried and we returned home.
On the way back, the director randomly stopped and bought us icecream. I took it as a sign that he had noticed my over heating. Brian isn't so sure, but we will never know because it isn't the Thai way to embarrass a guest like that.

Brian's most embarassing story

So I decide that going to the bathroom at this point in time is an excellent idea. Three factors go into this decision. 1) It was an actual toilet. 2) The director of our school had stepped out of the room leaving Brigid and I alone. 3) I had to use the toilet. You have to understand that when travelling in a foreign country when you have an opportunity to go #2 it is essential that you do so, however, in this case I wish I had refrained. Sparing you some details after finishing my business I flush the toilet and everything seems to be going well. I realize that and additional flush is necessary and thought to myself "this shouldn't be a problem". The toilet doesn't flush. Immediate panic sets in and I start to sweat, and I mean sweat profusely. I keep trying and nothing is working. In the room outside I hear that the director has returned and I can only imagine that the other director of the primary school (whom we haven't met yet, and whose bathroom it is) is there as well. More sweating, I try to lift the top toilet cover and fill it with water from the sink hoping that somehow this would help. It doesn't. After repeated flushes I think " you know what Thailand has been fun and if they end up not letting me teach because they are digusted with me I am ok with that." I end up leaving the bathroom and returning to a room with Brigid talking with our school's director. The look on her face confirms that I look extremely panicked and really really sweaty. After a few minutes of conversation with the director he gets a phone call.....Thank God! I tell Brigid what happens, she immediately laughs in my face. I race to the bathroom and try to flush one more time and IT WORKED, I am saved. I may have really stunk but that bathroom was as clean as it was when I entered and thats all that matters.

a day in the life of the director leads to our most embarrassing moments . . . so far

The first day of school we are asked to come at 7:45 am for the flag raising ceremony. Brian and I arrive there standing quietly in the back as they sing the national anthem and say a couple of prayers. Then a few teachers go up and speak. Clearly we understand none of this so we stand in there smiling wondering what the day is going to bring, when we suddenly hear our names and realize one of the English teachers is talking about us (to this day we don't know what was said, but there was a lot of laughing). They are then ushering us up there and ask us to introduce ourselves. I went first and it should come as no surprise to anyone (especially you dad), but I spoke to fast and had to introduce myself again. Needless to say, Brigid is not a name that flows off of the Thai tongue. Brian went next and after seeing my mistake spoke really slowly and no one had any problem with his name. We have now been here two weeks and the students still call Brian "Brian" and me just "teacher." However, this does not come close to our embarrassing moments.
After the flag ceremony the director of our school really wanted to talk to us and show us the primary school that we will be teaching at on Fridays. We piled into his truck and were on our way. At the primary school we were greeted once again with many shouts of Hello and "my name is." The kids were so enthusiastic that we were instantly excited to teach there. We were then sent into the office of the primary school director. There we sat and talked for a bit, took a tour of thew school and had lunch. We then came back to the directors office (who still had not shown up. People seem to go away for long periods of time without explanation here. It is very odd) to chat some more. I decided to use the rest room and to my delight it was an actual toilet. We had been using little holes in the ground until then and pretty much since then. I came out and told Brian who was so thrilled that he decided to use it to and so Brian's story begins . . .

being white in Thailand

Brian and I are superstars of the village based almost entirely on our white skin. Not only do we look different, but having white skin is considered ideal amongst Thai people. Not a day goes by that we both are not told how handsome and beautiful we are (something that neither of us have had any problem adjusting to!). Every woman uses baby powder in order to make her skin appear whiter and they are constantly avoiding the sun and walking around with umbrellas to ensure that their skin is as white as possible. It is so funny to think about how much money I spent on fake tanners and bronzer at home and here it is exactly because I am the pale Irish girl that makes me beautiful. Since Brian has never been tan once in his life he is pretty much all set.

The funniest moment we had with baby powder was our first night in Pi Ray's house. Her daughter and friend were running around the house looking at us laughing and then running away. Each time they got a little closer, but never close enough to touch us. Their laughter attracted the attention of some of the other neighborhood kids who began looking through the door at these farang. They all ran around looking at us through the windows and laughing and shouting "hello." The girls finally got bored with this game and in order to stop it, they shut all the windows and doors and closed all the shades. Brian and I immediately started sweating (one of many times we have sweat more than we ever have before (yes Boydo, more than the time you called me a sweat machine)) and we sat wondering when we could open a window again. The two girls disappeared into another room while the other neighborhood kids started knocking on the windows shouting "FARANG!!" We were a little unsure what to do when the girls emerged from the room with their faces covered in baby powder and ran out to other neighborhood kids and said in Thai "we are the farang" and stood dancing and laughing. Brian and I broke down laughing and realized that this was just a small taste of what we were in for.

HELLO!!!

Our arrival at our school (Phraithammakhunwitta School to be exact) was highly celebrated to say the least. As we stepped out of the truck there was tons of giggling, laughing, and staring. There was a huge reaction/roar/general flip out from the kids as we walked by and Brian waved and simply said "hello". It was then he realized that he would not need to steal Brigid's jokes any more because this was going to be the easiest crowd of his life. We were easily the only "farang" (foreigners/white people) that the kids had ever seen other than on TV. We received a quick tour, met most of the teachers and called it a day. We went back to the house of Pi Ray, an english teacher, where we would be staying for a week. At the end of the week we were told we would be moving into a house of our own that they were currently building for us. Seriously, the leader of the village is currently working on our house around the clock. If we weren't sure before we quickly realized that a) these people are the nicest people in the world and b) we were immediate superstars of the village. We met Pi Ray's family including her 3 yr old son, aka cutest kid ever, who is named after a vegetable. Pi Ray decided to take us for a walk to visit the local Buddhist temple. We ended up running into the high monk. We were very respectful and "waied" (bowing with hands together under chin) him and ended up having to kneel. He was very generous and gave us a gift of Thai silk, which is hand made by the monks. He gave one to both of us, it is believed by the Thai people that if you are given a gift from the monks you will have good luck and be protected in future endeavors. We are still trying to figure out why the monk tied Brian's around his waist and simply gave Brigid hers?? Anyway after that very cool bit of culture we were quickly bought back to the world of technology and the high monk took out his camera phone a wanted a picture with us!!!! We gladly posed and should have asked if he could email it to us.

Hard beds, giant spiders and that's the way uh huh uh huh we like it

We finally left the safety of Bangkok and took a 11:oo am bus ride to Chiayaphum. Unfortunately the bus that was said to be air conditioned actually only had fans pushing the stifling hot air around. Needless to say, it was a sweaty 6 hr. trip to the home of Oh, Ae and Om (the volunthai workers) the only highlights being the oreos served and the fact that Brigid realized she like to sleep with her finger rested slightly on the side of her nose and refused to sleep any other way. Upon arrival we were greeted by Dusit, father of Ae, Oh and Om who took us to his house. While there we met another volunteer, Olivia, who was french and seemed to be communicating much better than we were. After a quick night market visit and a large traditional, home cooked Thai dinner, in which Brigid was told she didn't eat enough and Brian was told he was a fatty and to stop eating, we were showed to our room for the night. Our bedroom to our suprise and delight was air conditioned. However, our bed was so hard that when Brigid jumped on it she almost shattered her hip in 5 different places. Sleeping on a box spring and waking up to catch a 4:25 am bus was no match for our next foe. At about 3:55 am Brigid showered, went to the bathroom, and flushed the toilet (a flushing toilet a massive bonus at this house), the toilet flushing woke up a massive spider that crawled out of nowhere and set up shop on the bathroom wall. Brian still had to shower, which he did all the while keeping a close eye on the 6 inch spider slowly circling him waiting to attack. It was a rather quick and careless bathing session due to honestly the biggest live spider either of us had ever seen.
Sleeping for most of the first half of the bus ride we were disturbed from our sleep at 7:30 am when they started blast music. At first it was a steady beat but then it quickly became a Thai band singing "thats they way uh huh uh huh I like it" in English. We couldn't contain ourselves much to the bewilderment of the rest of the passengers. We arrived in Sisaket around where we met

Last night in Bangkok makes the world your oyster

Our last day in Bangkok we met with Oh and Ae from Volunthai who got us all set up to take a bus to Chiayaphum the next day. They really eased our fears about teaching and we began to get really excited and immediately started thinking of lesson plans (basically games that we could play with the kids).
We then headed to the Golden Buddha in Chinatown. What is special about this Buddha is that it is solid gold and for 100's of years it was undiscovered as it was covered in plaster. It was not until it was moved and accidently dropped that a piece of plaster chipped away and this giant golden buddha was discovered. It actually started many others to chip away at their own plaster Buddhas to see if there was a treasure underneath. At the wat there was a monk handing out blessings.
We then decided to walk around chinatown for a bit and we agreed that it was the most crowded place we had been thus far. The sidewalks were teeming with people and vendors selling just about anything. There were even those few sketchy vendors who sold nothing but a few clearly stolen goods like a wallet, a pair of jeans, a corkscrew and a watch. We held on to our things a little bit tighter as we walked by these vendors.
That night we decided to venture to the Suan Lum Bazaar. Literally this night market was the size of two football fields. In the center there was a food court and a giant stage with peole singing karoke. It was quite a sight. We will certainly return there on our way back through Bangkok to buy gifts (please post if you would like something, unless you are Emily Cohen, then I already know what you want!!). We took our first tuk tuk home from the night bazaar and went to bed knowing that this was the last time that we would sleep (and use a toilet) so comfortably. We could not even imagine what was next . . .

Ok, so clearly that worked! Yay! The issue is that all the buttons on the website are written in Thai (if you know how to change that, please post a way to do it!) and for those of you who don't know, we don't speak, let alone read Thai!
Anyhow, we are sitting in a giant mall in Bangkok at an internet cafe. It is the rainy season here and it just started to pour on us, so we came running in for shelter. So far the trip has been wonderful. We arrived late on July 5th and were lucky enough to be picked up at the airport by a our new friend Andy's driver Som Kidd (THANK YOU SOOO MUCH HEIDI BERGMEYER!!).

The next morning we headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. This was truly a wonderful way to start our introduction to Thailand. By the way, if any of you ever make it here and want to go to the Grand Palace do not be detered by the men who try to force you into a Tuk Tuk. They scared us enough that we walked an entire lap around the palace before pushing our way through. We were completely in awe of all the architecture and intricate detail of the palace and temple. It was incredible to sit in front of the Emerald Buddha in the company of monks. The highlight of the day, however, was the reclining buddha at Wat Pho. It really was an incredible sight and one we will not soon forget (we will post pictures later once we figure out this button thing). Later in the afternoon we even tried our first food from a cart and bargained with some of the vendors. It might not seem like much, but it was a victory for Brian and me.

We spent that night out with Andy and a large group of his friends, who took us to one of our last "non-thai food" meals. He and his friends kept saying that we were so brave to head "up country" to Isaan. That pretty much had the opposite affect than intended and Brian and I are more nervous now than we were before. But we knew this would be an adventure, so we are still excited! When we got back to our hotel we immediately started studying Thai, which was not so productive since at this point we had had a few drinks.

The next day we were lucky enough to have lunch with Dr. John Yang and his wife. They took us out to a small authentic Thai family restaurant that we would not have otherwise dared to dine in (the menu was written in Thai). The food was wonderful and it was very interesting hearing about how Dr. Yang had met Doc as well as Joe and Sean. They shared with us some traveling tips and then Mrs. Yang took us to the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, which we learned is very exclusive. It was gorgeous and had a 9 hole golf course right in the middle of the city. It was like no other golf course we had ever seen.

Now we are attempting to get a cell phone (REALLY tough when you don't speak Thai!)

We miss you all and thank you so much for all your well wishes! We will likely not post again until we are settled in with our host family in Sisaket. I know you will all be on the edge of your seat for our next update!

PS If you have not already seen it, please check out the wonderful story about the Boston Irish Wolfhounds and the Durant family in the Boston Globe (this is obviously Brigid typing if you couldn't tell already! I don't think Brian has the same affinity to exclamation points as I do!!)

xoxo Brigid and Brian

Ok, so I am not sure if this is going to work, but here goes nothing!