(Ace)

Nugent Waterside:While staying at “Nugent Waterside,” the name of the complex where we studied for the CELTA, we had many a fond memory. This was especially true for the other trainees that we met there. With such a wide variety of English-speaking people, Kaitlin and I learned very much about the Britishisms that escape the American vocabulary. When we studied, we were either secluded in our rooms with our laptops, or if we wanted to use the internet, we went to the resource room, which was a large room with about eight computers. With the outside temperature already very hot and humid, this room became an undesirable place to stay for any longer than a few minutes, especially for me as I had a hard time adjusting to the climate as it was. However, it was also a haven where the trainees could get together and ask questions about lesson planning and assignments, as well as chew the fat with the others for a while you waited for lunch or while you checked your email. Our days consisted almost entirely of classes that the trainers put on, lesson planning, review of the previous day’s lessons, and our lessons. (We taught every other weekday.)

One particularly interesting memory is when some of the students and trainers found a gigantic fly with a body almost as long as a normal-sized watch laid flat, with very large wings to match. Of course, when some of us were bending down to get a close look at it, one of the students poked it with a pencil, causing it to fly almost in our faces. (The students thought that was pretty funny.) When it did fly, it sounded like a miniature bomber flying overhead. Cool.
Kaitlin and I – for the most part – thoroughly enjoyed the meals that were served; they were all various Thai dishes, from Phat Thai, spicy noodle soups, to rice with chicken and fish (with skin on) and Tom Yum soup. Others, however, began to complain, saying such things as, “Oh, we have rice AGAIN today!” or “Oh great, more noodles!” which Kait and I didn’t really understand because we thought that the dishes were pretty delicious. The only things that we had a hard time eating were actually the desserts. (I know. It’s pretty crazy when Kaitlin and I like desserts the least of all the food!) Some of the desserts were made from corn and beans, sometimes mashed into a gluey, sticky paste that didn’t really have much of a taste, but the texture was enough to turn us off a bit. Other than that though, the meals were, on the whole, very good. The only bad thing was that we were in a small compound with everything we needed no more than a two-minute walk from our bedrooms; combine this with how busy we were and how hot/humid it was, you can imagine how little quality exercise we got. (I went running in the heat once, and it took me about three hours to stop sweating profusely!)

Overall, we were both glad to have taken the course, even though each of us saw some pretty major flaws with the methodology. But we learned a great many things that will help us once we start teaching in our own classroom. Perhaps the most useful thing – at least to me – was the overall flows of the different types of lessons. Although some needed to be modified to fit a particular lesson/focus, the provided an easy way to flow from one activity to the next in a very logical, systematic method that holds the students’ interest and keeps them on their toes.
Another great experience overall was simply interacting with the students. Many of us interacted with them very well, and we found that they were all very interesting people. You have to keep in mind that few of these students were actually children; nearly all of them were working adults. One of the students, Neng, was a taxi driver, and he was kind enough to go well out of his way to cart us around on the weekends for a nominal fee or for free. Another student was an importer/exporter, exporting Thai handicrafts and importing heavy machinery like caterpillars. Others were university students or employees of the university. Other professions ranged from health care professionals to small business owners to secondary school students. Overall, I personally think that the students were perhaps the best part of the course. I don’t think I’ll ever forget their kindness inside the classroom and out.

Once the course was over, we had a large party with all of the Thai students that we taught throughout the month. They were so kind; all the expenses for food, gifts, etc were paid for and arranged by the students themselves. They have such a high appreciation for all of us trainees (past, present, and future) that they throw a party in such a way at the end of every month. Apparently, they alternate who gives gifts for the trainees. This time, a jeweler who owns and manages three stores in Chiang Mai brought us all bracelets and necklaces from her business. (In the past, gifts have included belts and backpacks, among other things, I’m sure.) After the gift-giving, we all chowed down on the delicious, authentic Thai food that the students had prepared for us. The best dish was perhaps the spicy Thai sausage that someone had brought us. But the spicy green papaya salad was also to die for, as were a good number of the other dishes. Delicious! Thai food overall was exceptionally delicious.

After the course was over, some of the trainees (only those who hadn’t already flown home) went out to the bar to celebrate our newly-acquired certification, perhaps indicating a milestone in each of our lives. The bar we went to, called Riverside, had live bands that played a wide range of American and European popular songs. We were convinced that at least some of the band members were recruited straight out of a karaoke bar. One of the bands was so good that some of the songs that they sang/played were actually better than the originals! In any case, after several bottles of Sam Song, a Thai whiskey, Kaitlin and I had to say goodbye to the last of the crew that we would see before we left Thailand. After much hugging and blubbering, we finally made a quick exit to make it back to our hostel so as to get a good night of sleep before we went from Chiang Mai to Pai early the next morning. (The other two that were with us at the bar, Zoe and Rachel, ended up going to an all night bar to continue their late-night adventure.)
Pai had to be the best city we saw in Thailand by far. It was principally a tourist town, with an entire section of town covered with guest houses/hostels, shops of various sorts, and restaurants that catered to western appetites. One thing we were glad of was that we came during the “rainy” season, even though it rains more in Corvallis than it did during our stay in Thailand. (At least in Thailand, you wouldn’t go a month or more without ever seeing the sun!) This meant that there were very few tourists in Thailand, and, ergo, in Pai, so we had no trouble at all finding a place to stay for the nights we were there. (We found a nice bungalow made of a leaf-thatched roof and bamboo walls/floors.) Perhaps the best quality that Pai had to offer was that there wasn’t a terrible amount of things to do. Pai was such a small town that there was no point in spending a terrible amount of time exploring, and while we were there, we had zero obligations, responsibilities or duties. We got along very well by going to the local bookstore, buying a couple of good books, and sitting in a café sipping coffee, tea, or lassi (a fruit drink blended with a sourish yogurt. Delicious!) Before we came to Pai, Rachel, a fellow trainee at the CELTA program, recommended that we go to Joy’s elephant camp in order to get a wonderful ride on an elephant. So we woke up the second morning we were there and got a bicycle to ride out to the camp. (It was a really beautiful bike ride, with luscious vegetation and rice fields everywhere.) Before we got to the elephant camp, we saw an AWESOME looking tree house resort, so we stopped by and made a reservation after inspecting the tree house, some 30 feet or more above ground (more on this later). Once we got to the elephant camp and on the elephant, the elephant trainer took us down to the river for some fun. Once we were on the elephant’s back in the river, the trainer – who was on the ground at this time – decided to have some fun with us. (He seemed to have a good sense of humor.) Apparently, the elephant was trained with one verbal command to shake her head and body vigorously – with us on her. And so it went for what seemed like 25 minutes or so. Kait and I had a great time trying to stay on the elephant’s neck/back – with only a single rope to hold onto around her neck; we were largely unsuccessful. Needless to say, we got pretty wet, repeatedly, and the elephant seemed to enjoy herself too. But luckily, we got some GREAT pictures of the event, as the trainer was on the bank with Kait’s camera, snapping photos all the while. He caught us in mid air falling off of the elephant as her trunk went swooshing through the water. This was by far the highlight of our trip to Pai. After the elephant ride, we cleaned off in a hot spring pool back at the elephant camp and headed back to town for some lunch. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking in our lack of responsibility, rather guiltlessly I might add. Unfortunately, after dinner at a nearby restaurant, Kaitlin got a bit sick with a mild, yet exhausting bout of the stomach flu. Poor Kait had dizzy spells and exhaustion for the last day we were in Pai, and so was mainly bedridden. Poor thing. This meant that we could not stay in the tree house.

After a very windy van ride back to Chiang Mai the next day, we gathered our luggage from the guest house we had stayed at and left for the airport to catch our flight to S. Korea. Once we got there, we realized that our luggage was about 10 pounds overweight each, so we had to get rid of some of our winter clothes. (I had anticipated this and wore my heaviest shorts under my heaviest jeans.) Still a few pounds overweight, we had to pay a fee to get our baggage checked. Once we connected to Bangkok, we had to walk the distance of several football fields in order to figure out how to check in with Korean air and find our gate. Finally we got on our flight to South Korea.

We got our luggage and went to the arrivals section of the airport expecting to find our contact waiting for us…but he wasn’t there! So we called MoonKkang and let them know we had arrived, and they sent their man, Hyun, to pick us up. He apologized as he had thought that we would get in in the evening. (Usually this is the case, but since we came from Thailand, we arrived at 7:45am or so.) Hyun seemed very nice as he showed us to our new apartment. (Yay!) We have a washroom, a bathroom, a TV room, a bedroom, a dining room/kitchen (with much more room than Kait’s kitchen at her old studio), and the best part about it is that IT’S ALL OURS!!! We are still smiling about that.

Once Hyun showed us how to work all the gadgets in our apartment, we took a long rest after getting little sleep on the flight over. After this, we ventured to a local min-mart and stocked up on various toiletries that we had to throw away in Thailand to lighten our loads. Then we braved going to dinner at a Korean restaurant that had delicious BBQ-style food with various vegetables and meat. We sat down and asked the server for a menu, and she showed us a large one directly behind us on the wall, all in Korean script. After looking at this for a second or two, I turned to the waitress and said simply, “Um, we can’t read that…” After some amusing (if not comical) befuddlement on our part, we communicated through basic English words and gesturing that we wanted the same meal as the people sitting next to us. The table was set up with a hole in the middle, into which an employee placed some large, hot coals before placing a grilling screen on top. Soon, we got some meat and placed it onto the grill. After undoubtedly seeing our confused faces and glances to other tables, the proprietors came to our table in a very parental manner as if to say, “Okay children, let dad show you how it’s done.” We sat there, mildly embarrassed yet grateful for the help, as we learned how to eat Korean food. After we ate some delicious food (Kaitlin had mostly overcome her illness by this point,) we scouted out a grocery store about a block or two from our apartment and bought enough food to keep us until we could come back.

Since Saturday, Sept. 6th

We just had our first observations yesterday at Moon Kkang and we look forward to becoming part of the team. We think that Korea will treat us very well. The only real problem that we have had so far - and it was a minor one - was when we went out to dinner last night and we bought a meal and a drink. But apparently, the drink cost"more" than the meal. We think that since the price wasn't listed, the owners decided to take advantage of us considering that we couldn't speak the language in order to argue with them about the price... Oh well. We'll just never go there again! Up until that point, it was a very good night though. The two female owners seemed glad to have us and they joked around about our abilities with chopsticks.

Anyways, that's all we have for now. We are just in a large Korean computer gaming room where literally everyone is playing some kind of online game. We weren't even sure if we could just come in and use the internet! Crazy. We have been thinking of all of y0u very much lately and miss you all. We hope that things are going well, and we can't wait to hear from you. Lots of love from both of us!