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."