After our last day of class together, my students and I went on a picnic to celebrate. The students brought all of the food and made it at the lake. It was SPICY and delicious. Peter was able to come too, which made it even better. If you look at the pictures closely, you can see some people wearing long sleeves. Yes, it is winter time here in Thailand. BRRRRRRR!

During the middle of November, Peter went to Myanmar to complete the filming for the Shan documentary project. Some of his pictures are in the slideshow.

Shan School

Ever since I started studying TESOL at Payap University, I've been asking myself Do I really enjoy teaching English?? Am I just wasting my time?? But now that I've been teaching at the Shan school for about a month, I can honestly say that I love teaching there.

The school is part of a foundation (the Thinking Classroom Foundation) started to help Burmese immigrants (teenagers and adults) living in Thailand. The students are mostly Shan, though some Thai and some hilltribe students attend. One elderly Japanese couple has even started attending English classes there. Students are able to study Thai, English, and computer for free.

I teach in the mornings and it's always an adventure! For starters, I never know how many students will show up each day. Some days 15 students come to class, other days as many as 30 students have come. On a number of occasions, parents have brought their kids to the class since no one is available to care for them. Also, my classroom is outside, so it can be quite hot. It's a small space, so it's hard to move around. And it just happens to be in the same area as the kitchen and the motorcycle parking lot. The most recent challenge has been the noise due to construction behind the school. During the last class, we all got distracted watching a bulldozer level the ground right behind the classroom.

What surprises me the most about these students is their low level of English! Many of them can't even read or write in their own language, let alone English, and have had very little formal education. Most of them have had to start working at a very young age and so haven't had the opportunity to go to school. Yet in spite of these challenges, they're quite motivated and hardworking, which makes it so fun to teach them.

Last week, Peter had a chance to visit the class and get to know some of the students. Of course, they all loved him, especially the girls and said he looked like a Korean movie star. How blessed I am to be married to such a good-looking guy!

Starting in June, I'll be conducting research at the school for my thesis (the last part of my Masters program). As of now, my plan is to do an ethnographic study of Shan people learning English. I'm thankful to be teaching at such a fun place!

Thai Friends

We've managed to make a few Thai friends during our time here:

Saa is our building maintenance man. He's very friendly, and knows everthing there is to know about the dormitory grounds. He's married and has a daughter, but he rarely sees them, because he works all day long every day except once a week, and occasional holidays.

Some guys in the dorm hang out with Saa every night in a triple on the third floor. They all love to sing and some of them play guitar. Surprisingly, they sing mostly older Thai songs. Our favorite Thai song talks about how life is the same for everyone, except for our dreams. We've thrown a couple of parties with them, and at the last one we all sang "Zombie," by the Cranberries (I played guitar). We've also sung, "More Than Words," and "Superman." At the aforementioned party, our Thai friends made some delicious Pad See Iew and fried chicken wings for us! Our contribution? French bread pizza, which they politely ate, but sometimes I'm not sure if Thais share our enthusiasm for Western food. We often chat, sing, and watch movies together. We've also been able to help some of them with English homework. They made a very cool clock for us (see slideshow)!! They are:

Golf (Thai name Santisuk, which means peace) is a computer whiz, and a great singer!

Dong is incredibly enthusiastic and animated.

Neung plays guitar and sings, and loves computer games and drinking.

We are also friends with our landlord and wife (who visited and befriended my parents while visiting their son in Chicago!!).

Mick is my Thai teacher. He speaks English very well, and is actually going to England to do an internship at the end of the month (After finding out that I'm an English tutor, he asked if I could teach him. We just started last week). Mick took us to a really nice cafe that his friend works at. He's been coming to the gym with me on Thursdays for the last couple weeks. We're planning on double dating with him and his girlfriend soon. Her name is Noo, which means "mouse," so he told me that together they make a Mickey Mouse couple (some of you are cringing from the corniness, and some are delighted).

We've also met a lot of people on the basketball court at Chiang Mai University, and many other places around our building and the rest of the city. The next entry by our lovely Lydia will talk about some other people in our lives!

When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted...

We have four cats at the Create office. Two are fairly normal, and shy. Their names are Dixie and Tuna. Dixie is white with brown and black patches, while Tuna is dark gray. The two others, however, Muffin and Snickers, stray far from your average feline friend.

Muffin is quite friendly, but whenever you're around her, you get this strange feeling you can't shake that...something's not quite right. Something's...missing. Muffin is missing her right eye. She lost it in a fight (we'll get back to that later), and has since been dubbed "One-Eyed Jack," "The Pirate Kitty," and "Jack Sparrow." Sometimes, the vacant hollow of her eye gets filled with puss, but we still love her. She can usually be found rubbing up against tables, chairs, computers, and even people, apparently scratching her itchy spots. Both Lyd and Rachel (one of the staff) like to pick her up and cuddle, much to Muffin's grief, yet another poor victim of forced love.

Snickers is the hunter. He is possibly the friendliest of the lot, and especially enjoys rough petting around the neck and shoulders. He is also the most vocal, sporting by far the highest soprano skills of the bunch. Snickers, by the way, is the only male cat among the four. He has been known to hunt snakes, rats, and birds. But rather than keeping the building rodent-free, he often chooses to drag them into the Create office. Severed heads and entrails have been smeared on the floors in the house, including the bathroom, which is also home to three of our staff (all girls!!)!

Most recently, a yellow/orangish fat cat has started to stray around the office. He has this soulful meow that sounds like a dying sheep. The guy who does our building maintenance (we live next door), who we've befriended says the cat is lookin' for a mate. Well, that makes sense, because he hangs around our cats, chasing the females, and fighting with Snickers. We suspect he was the one who took Muffin's eye out. Sometimes we find Snickers with patches of hair missing, and deep gouges and gashes in his shoulders or lower.

The last straw was when this orange cat started coming into the office and eating our cats' food. Jasmine, one of our staff (see picture) bought a plastic pellet gun recently to scare off our intruder. It was cheap, and within days, broke. After that, she apparently bought a slingshot. She hasn't gotten good enough to hit her target (this cat must be a glutton for punishment... it still comes around even after being shot!), but she's on a vendetta!

I would like to say no animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry, but that would be a lie. Rest assured that the cat Lydia is holding in the picture is one of our own, though, just posin' for the shot!