Clip of the Week

The school hired a 3-person Thai cover band to play at school last week. Check out the footage from the mosh pit ...Not even the 90 degree humidity can temper these kids' love of T-Pop!

Nan At First Sight, Take Two

This week I finally got back to high-fiving, waiing, sweating, hugging, and stickering as a full-time gig... And once again, my life feels complete. It was a fairly laid-back week, filled with familiar faces, lots of gifts, and ecstatic "WOW!"s when students and Thai teachers alike noticed that they already know one of the farang. 

We eased into the first day of real teaching slowly: Monday and Tuesday, Prakop let the four of us settle into the routine of school days, leaving us to lesson plan in the A/Ced office and stop in to say hello to our classrooms throughout the afternoon. The Director and two Assistant Directors held their annual "Welcome the Foreigners" meeting in the school office, using the exact same introductory speech, creepy visual once-over of each of us to approve at our clothing, and Tourists Attractions of Nan worksheet ("Nan is a lovely city. Nan is an attractive city. Nan is a beautiful city.") as last year. Director Sukda nodded at me and told me that I am "more beautiful than last year" (translation: "less fat"), which I will go ahead and take as a compliment.

Back in the Bandon Sriserm swing of things

On Wednesday, it was back to the ol' grindstone, as we each were officially responsible for teaching - and controlling - classes. I recognize most of the 6th graders from 5th grade last year, but it's still a big adjustment each period as I get to know the classes and their personalities. Who will be the new Khim 1 and Cake? Who will avoid eye-contact with me so as not to respond to anything in English? Who will mistakenly write "I not have a chubby" on the first homework assignment? Only time will tell.

Although it's only been a week, I am already extremely partial to Junior, Na and Lilly from the 6/3 class. Every day (actually, every hour) they come into the English office and stand by my desk, mostly just to smile at me, rifle through my sticker collection, and point to things on my desk and name them in Thai. Junior - a sixth grader no bigger than the second graders and a surefire ladyboy - presents us all with a collection of handmade paper stars (dtao), Pokemon stickers, and handpicked flowers from the outside bushes. The school gardener will probably soon enforce a "Stop Feeding Flowers to the Farang" campaign.

New in Town

Since my kindergarten classes haven't started yet, I only have 9 hours of 6th grade teaching per week. To fill all those free hours, Prakop is having me re-write each grade's yearly English curriculum packets - a task that will take at least a month in itself to complete, but one that badly needs to be done. It's been nice to be able to help Prakop with various things around school and with helping orient the new PiA team... Even though I miss having more dinners with Prakop and Mr. Prakop (now retired!), I actually really enjoy playing Tour Guide around town. Maybe the Nan Tourism Office will hire me so I can stay in Asia a third year??? (I joke, Mom and Dad).

The week flew by and before we knew it, it was the weekend and high-time for a bia. Now, I'll admit that during the past few months, I was anxious about returning to Asia without my old friends in Nan. I knew teaching adorable Big Bosses and Mini Nuts at school would be just as great the second time around... but who would befriend Thai nightclub singers, choke gaao 100 Piper-soda waters, and eat 4am stuffed omelettes from Poom Saam with me?? After one week spent together with the new Nan-ies, however, my worries have been washed away like mosquito repellant in the rainy season. This group of girls is hilarious, outgoing, and already appreciative the finer things in Nan: "banana milk toast" at the Milk Club,  Ricky the waiter (in general), the "Monks & Dogs" Thai soap opera, and the surprising ease of biking while tipsy (although, Steph did invest in a helmet). While the original Nan Bicycle Club will always be near and dear to my heart, I have no doubt that this year will bring with it a new whole new set of farang-themed adventures.

Nan is a lovely town.

Friday night the four of us met up with Will, a young American teacher who has been here a month and lives on our street, and my Thai friend Lak, for dinner on the riverside. Ricky squealed when he saw us, then tried to act natural as he seated us at a table and took down my usual order of cashew chicken and fried rice. He brought over the rest of the wait staff to say hello, and for a couple of minutes tried to argue with me in Thai that Stephanie and Liza, with their dark hair and ethnic features, were not really farang. Finally, he accepted that Steph is Asian but NOT Thai, and Liza technically comes from Mexico.

After dinner, Lak took us to the Soda Club for drinks and to watch their live band play. The musicians smiled at us and switched over to English songs once we arrived, apologizing after each set for botching some of the lyrics. Although we started the night with the intention of "just playing it by ear" and maybe taking it easy, Lak sooned turned to Katie and declared that she was ready to dance and we should go to the Fifth.

 

Ska band at the Fifth

The Fifth Club was it's usual energetic and slightly-seedy-but-enjoyable self, complete with a ska band jamming on trumpets and guitar-keyboards and bouncing on stage all night long. After the club closed, my friends Golf and Puu casually asked if we'd like to join them to "eat food," and as is always my answer to that question, we said yes. Of course "eat food" really meant roll up on bicycles with 20 Thais to a late night karaoke bar, order a room complete with couches and a wide-screen TV, scream the lyrics to an eclectic playlist of Thai emo/American Top 40 circa 2001/My Chemical Romance, and down endless plates of kao tohm (rice soup), stir-fry and noodles until 5am. So we sort of just "jumped right in" to Nan nightlife the first weekend back.

Glass workers at Lak's factory

Saturday, the four of us went to visit Lak and Matt's under-construction house, and their jewelry factory across the river. We got to see the workers-at-work in the factory: glass blowers shaping small and colorful jewelry pieces, and women twisting brass and silver wire into intricate earring sets. We bought Lak out of nearly all her sample earrings, and placed an order for even more. In the evening, we met Lak and Matt for a feast of Isaan food (a special kind of Northern Thai cuisine), and warm coconut milk desserts from a favorite local shop.

We spent the rest of the weekend lazily, exploring more, and sampling the many new boutiques and cafes that have popped up around town... It's kind of incredible how many were built in the past three months. Most of these new places sell typically-Asian odd concoctions of sweet jelly drinks and odd food items involving meat. And since I've already mastered weird-but-good in Asia, I'll savor these treats with a new motto: "new-but-good."

Fresh Farang, Fresh Fruit

Exactly one year since I first saw it, I'd forgotten just how small the Nan Airport is: a single concrete landing strip flanked by lush green tropical plants, leading to a small one-room building. After we de-planed, a beat-up pickup truck gathered our checked luggage from the tiny aircraft and drove it 20 feet to the building, where it backed up next to a large open window, through which two guys tossed suitcases inside onto the wooden platform "Baggage Claim." (And, just to remind us all what continent we'd landed in, a man in a leather fanny pack filmed all the action on his handheld recorder). 

Despite being morning, the rainy-season-humidity hit me like a hot damp curtain as I stepped outside the airport. I stood with my backpack and suitcase, sweating profusely and shaking off my jet lag from a grand total of 37+ hours of travel. Everyone outside glanced over at me curiously, offering me taxi rides and wondering who was going to pick up the exhausted-looking farang. After a few minutes, Prakop and the school janitor pulled up in the trusty Bandon Sriserm mini bus... Prakop literally leaped from the side of the van to greet me, giggling and making more noises of "Ahhh! Eeeek! Ohh!" then any real words - a Prakop way of saying, "Welcome back!" Naturally, Prakop knew about five of the fifteen passengers who had come in on my flight, and as the janitor loaded my backpack and suitcase into the trunk, she chatted with them. Each of them smiled and stared sideways at me, and finally shouted "Welcome Nan!" as we got into the car. 

Prakop's first comment on the ride home was, "I bet everyone at home says, 'Wow! Why do you come back a second year?'" I laughed and said yes. She smiled and looked at me earnestly: "And? What do you say?" "I say, 'Because it was so much fun the first time!'" She laughed back and said, "Good, good." 

After making one pit stop to pick up a lunch of fried rice, we arrived at the apartment. One of my new roommates, Katie, was already there and settled in, and she helped bring in my luggage. Prakop showed me to my old room, and as I unlocked the door, she giggled to herself and said, "I think it will look different to you!" Indeed, in the outer room - the "common room" for our apartment - Prakop had bought and set up a brand new refrigerator (about twice the size of our decrepit one last year), a microwave (a novelty in and of itself), and some kind of food chopper/grinder appliance that I'm sure will be useful once I figure out what it's used for. 

A few hours later, Prakop returned to the apartment. She poked her head into my room to say, "Grade 6 is here to see you!" Feeling grateful that I'd just changed into real clothes and was not just caught in my underwear by my boss or soon-to-be students, I ran outside to see the new 6/1 class - all thirty-something of them - waiting outside at the foot of the stairs, our just-returned bicycles lined up in front of them. They shouted Hello! s and jumped up and down with huge grins on their faces; Sai Nam finally couldn't contain herself and darted at me with a low hug around my waist. We talked for a bit, the girls crowding around me and smiling - the boys fiddling with our bikes and trying to look disinterested. (How I've missed 12-year-old "bro" angst). Finally Prakop shoo-ed them away in Thai, and in that familiar vocal unison the kids said, "Goood-bye, see-you-on-Mon-day!" 

Later in the afternoon, I took Katie on a mini bike tour of town. (After all this time off the ol' bicycle saddle, my butt bones have some serious adjusting to do this week). Although I've only been absent a short three months, Nan has changed a lot since I last saw it: new restaurants, coffee shops, clothing stores, and mini malls have popped up everywhere along the center of town, while others have closed or changed name. There's a new Homestay and Hotel on our soi (lane), and the sketchy Goodday restaurant has been converted entirely to a travel booking center. It even looks like our school is undergoing yet another renovation. 

Amidst all the new-ness, it was a mini-thrill to pass by familiar faces on the streets - to see the recognition spread across smiling expressions, and to people shout out "Hello!" and wave as we passed by. On a single bike ride, I got to see School Steak Man, Phufa Coffee Girl (who-always-has-cool-earrings), Hot Pad Thai Guy, Milk's mom at the market, Ig-Q from Grade 1, and the 7-11 crew; we also stopped by Choke and Arm's shop near school. Everyone stared with obvious fascination at Katie, a fresh farang in town, who boasts a 5'9" stature and a shock of short platinum blonde hair.

The next morning, the last two of the newbies, Liza (pronounced "Lisa") and Steph, arrived. Since Prakop was away at 6th Grade Art Camp this weekend, she put me in charge of airport pickup with the janitor and making sure everyone got proper Thai food meals until Monday. After letting Liza and Steph settle in a bit, we went out for a pad Thai lunch and to walk the market a bit. I was happily reminded that summertime is my favorite fruit season in Thailand: colorful piles of fresh mangoes, rambutan, longans, mangosteen and dragonfruit lined the tables under the market tents, and I stocked up. I even tasted the ever-controversial durian fruit for the first time ever today. Verdict: tastes a little like banana, has a weird consistency, but all-in-all, not bad. 

Today, I took the roommies out for another mini tour of Nan - this time to some of the main temples and to bike along the river and reservoir. We ate lunch at the "Cafeteria" (an indoor collection of various food stalls), and - reminiscent of my very first meal in Nan - I saved Katie from biting into the chunk of congealed chicken blood that had been generously added to her noodle soup. Later we stopped by Choke and Arm's shop, where their 5-year-old daughter Cake (my soon-to-be student in Kindergarten) gave me the exact same greeting as she has the past year: smiled wryly while rolling her eyes, buried her face into Arm's leg, and yelled at Choke when he tried to make her sawadee-ka me. (Arm tells me that so far Cake loves Kindergarten at Bandon Sriserm because all she does is "play and sleep all day"... so when I walk in with flashcards and songs to learn this week, I doubt her affections towards me will grow any).

Tonight, I'll plan out some First Day o' Class lessons, itch away at my many newly formed mosquito-bites, engage in awkward Facebook chats with former 6th graders ("I am Bamboo from Thailand. I am happy with you!"), and adapt again to the constant sticky (dewy?) state of my skin... I'm trying to prove my Asian-ness by resisting the urge to turn on the A/C.