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.
