Slept without the AC last night! Granted, I accidently passed out at 8:30pm and woke up at about 5am... probably an indicator that I am still jetlagged and could have slept on rocks last night after our 300-stair hike - but I think my body and my sweat glands are also finally adjusting to the heat. Or I'm just learning to "be Thai" about it.
Since the kids were practicing for a Thai-Equivalent-of-Teacher's-Appreciation-Day assembly this afternoon, I only had to teach one class (6/1) all day. For the "describe yourself" unit, we learned some new descriptive adjectives vocab: thin, tall, short, blond, etc. I had the kids play a game where they had to match the word to a picture of its definition, then use the word in a sentence to describe a person (themselves or a classmate). I started to be more careful about which words I called out after a few rounds of "Tay is chubby," "Tay is wide," and "Tay is large." But Tay took it like a champ.
For lunch, Ajarn Wandee (another English instructor) wanted to take us up the street for "the best pad Thai in Nan." It was actually the only pad Thai we'd had in Nan so far... but it's a definite possibility that it is the best. After lunch, Wandee took us through the street market, insisting that she buy us some fruit to take home. We sampled about 3 or 4 different fruits that I had neither heard of nor seen before in my life. All were delicious. Weird looking, but delicious. With one exception: durian. Apparently durian is native to southeast Asia and hugely popular in most countries here... but no joke, it smells like the thing that crawled under your kitchen sink and died there last week. According to Wikipedia, "[durian's] odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian. ...I'll stick to mangoes, kop kun kha!
Like Prakop, Wandee learned English at the University from a Thai teacher, and she says she wants to practice speaking with us as much as possible to improve her pronunciation. In return, she has promised to help us with our Thai. It's kind of a strange and synergestic experience we are having here: at the exact same time that we are teaching Thai students the complex mechanisms of our own native language (and helping Prakop and Wandee to practice their English), we ourselves are surrounded in Thai, and are finding that it's necessary to learn the language in order to communicate with 95% of the population in Nan. I can't wait for the day when I understand what the old woman at the noodle stand is trying to tell me, or even better, when I can communicate an idea back to her. That said, [the anthropologist in me] finds it fascinating what can be communicated between two people without using any formal language at all - the kinds of gestures or expressions that seem to be universally understood among the human species. In Thailand, I'm finding that a smile goes a long way. Run out of things to talk about with the Assistant Director who speaks no English? Smile. Trying to make that kid in the back row feel more comfortable when he messes up the future tense? Smile. Want to try that strange looking pink fruit with tentacles coming out of it? Point, and smile.
More than a few times at the street market, Aj. Wandee would stop to talk to the vendor, then turn to one of us and say something like, "This is the mother of Gam, one of your 4th graders." Many of our students' parents work blue-collar jobs in Nan... I think it's why learning English is so valuable for these kids, and why Aj. Prakop and others have devoted so much energy to the English Program at Bandon Sriserm: learning English gives students a better chance of attending the best universities in Thailand, and at becoming professionals. And so many of these students are amazing at English. On top of that, they are truly enthusiastic about learning it (for the most part). 10 times a day, a student won't just say "Hello!" as she passes me in the hallway, but will actually stop and try to have a whole conversation in English - even if she's not one of my students. I for one never had the guts to do that with a Spanish teacher in middle school... and Spanish at least uses the same alphabet as English.
Prakop told us we could leave early today (since afternoon classes were cancelled), so Anna, Nicole, Emily and decided to explore town a bit and do some shopping. I bought more fruit (ripe mangoes for breakfast - yummm) and a few little trinkets from a textile shop. There is a large population of hill tribes in the outskirts of Nan, who specialize in really interesting textiles: clothes, coin purses, scarves... Get excited, closest friends of mine - I'm already stocking up on gift souveniers to bring home! We also stopped by an outdoor coffee-bar-type-place called Goodday (their motto: "Everyday is Goodday!")... We had some Americanos and a coffee drink that was translated as "Go Pee" on the menu. ?.
And for the best part of my day.....
Alongside the Nan River, there are a few large outdoor (everything is outdoors, really) tennis and basketball courts. Everyday around 6pm, there is a free aerobics class given there. An instructor and her four "background dancers" stand up on a stage with microphones and, with the help of Thai power mixes blaring over the loud speakers, lead a class of roughly 150 Thais in a very confusing and very quick-paced aerobics routine. Most people taking the class are Thai women aged 40 and up (although I did see one man), and for some reason everyone wears some shade of lime green to workout. Some also wear jean shorts and converses. Emily, Nicole and I jumped into the session about 20 minutes late - again, the ONLY white people on the scene. I'm not sure if any of you have seen me do aerobics in America before, but I'm less-than-coordinated even when I understand what the instructor is yelling. Imagine my skills when the class is in Thai.
After the class - drenched in sweat x1000 - we biked to the street market to grab some dinner. Stands were closing early, and the only thing left to order was pad Thai; we got it to go and ate back at the apartment.
Two meals of pad Thai in one day? Ohhhh yeah. Life is good.
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