I think I need an umbrella

Silas is the 5th grade teacher from Camaroon and he has been at AMEC for about 5 years.  Being from Camaroon, he's black man.  When he first came to Thailand he was in Bangkok looking for work and he couldn't find any because he was black.  Employers would even tell him straight to his face, we won't hire you because you're black.  He would respond by laughing in their face.  Perfect.

Silas also told me that renting an apartment for black men is a challenge too; shit, getting a HOTEL room can be difficult.  So there's a problem of racism in Thailand.  But here's the kicker, it's not because he's 'black.'

Huh?

It's because his skin is so damn dark.

What?

Remember how I've said before that light skin is glorified?  Shit, the soap here has bleaching agents in it.

So those that are 'racist' just despise dark skin.  That means a very, very, dark skinned Thai would receive a tremendous amount of bullshit during their life.

After considering the situation I realized all those times Thais wanted to take pictures with me because I'm blond and white should have filled me with rage.  You wouldn't have wanted to take pictures with god damn Silas?  Would you??

The fuck Thailand?

Also I learned this week that in Japan there is a popular business where a van drives around and you can pay money to enter it and have a woman fart in your face.

**The More You Know**

In other news, Tuesdays are my 'speech' days.  I have to talk for a few minutes in front of the school.  It can be about anything.  I was stumped.  Rachel said if I couldn't amuse the students then to amuse myself.

So I told them all about guidos for a few minutes. 

Points made where that they tanned their skin with chemicals, glitterized their clothes, wore sunglasses indoors at night, and this was all due to their not being very bright because they don't read.

I don't think any of them understood.  But I did get them all to say "gweeeedoooss"  with me. 

lol

Dear Dad

Today a Thai guy living here, around my age, taught me how to drive the bad ass manual motorcycle they have here.  It's the same one I posted about a month ago. Bear in mind he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Thai, we shared about 3 common words.

In conclusion, your teaching skills as they relate to manuals need some polishing and I now have a spare set of wheels. 

=D

First week of school

Post on teaching blog - Le Teaching Blog

In other news I bought great prescription sunglasses that made me feel like I was being lifted off the ground so I walked around like Ray Charles for the first 10 minutes.

Later in the evening I was having some drinks with my neighbor M and his friend Ling, literally this time, the guy lives one unit over.  I whipped out my translator and we enjoyed some basic conversation.  Unfortunately they thought I asked them at one point if they were both gay, like with each other. 

"no no no no no no no, straight, straight, layyydeeee, layyydee we like the layydeee"

The question I put into my translator was "Are you a tutor?"

I then put the translator away for awhile.

I'm going to go out drinking and "dancing, dancing" with them tonight.  Should be a trip, lol.

Well....

Eating fried pig skins while smoking and drinking whiskey with your neighbors at 1 am.

Fuck it I'm an adult god dammit

First Day of School

I'm running on cortisol at the moment so I should probably wind down somehow.  I have morning duty tomorrow and need to prep things for class so right now I don't have time to write but here's a half-assed attempt at humor.
How I felt before class during the morning ceremonies:

 How I felt in front of my after 30 minutes:

 

How I felt in front of my class after 32 minutes:

 

 How I felt after the period ended.




How I felt when they wouldn't understand me:



How I felt when they seemed to not understand the work outwardly at all but when I went around the room to check their work they nailed things:

 

How I felt in hindsight:



How I felt when one of my students was fascinated by my arm hair and couldn't stop touching it/me like I was a dog and another asked me what was coming out of my face.


How I felt when I didn't know how to play a game with a student and she said "Jereme knew how to play it."



How I felt when I found out it was a students birthday and we were having cake and pizza:




How I felt after getting home at 5, going to the gym, eating dinner, and running errands:



My eating face:



Now:


What the end of the week will feel like:

**Massages Temples**

Trying to communicate to Thais in certain circumstances feels like what I imagine "conversations" at a party full of deaf people and you're the only one that doesn't know any sign language, would feel like.  Interesting at first but then you realize you made a huge mistake and you're the only one with a decent taste in music.

Le Teaching Blog

I've got another blog, the one just for all things related to teaching.  It's primary purpose is for reflection and to keep track of what I've been up to in the classroom.  The secondary purpose is to showcase what I offer as a teacher and to try to capture a bit of my character so that I can then use it as a resume builder of sorts, something to show a future employer should it prove relevant. 

Sometimes the stuff I write about is boring.  Other times it might be of interest to you folks back in the America.  I'll post a link here whenever I make a new post there in case you'd like to see what I'm up to vocationally, aha....

The entry I just wrote up I'd classify as non-boring so I'll link it.  How non-boring is to be determined.  It's short, don't worry.

Click --------->  Ta-daaaa

Not my type

On Sunday I met up with a couchsurfer in town and together we explored some park a bit north of town.  I don't think it was the right park, or a park, but we did explore it.  Fortunately she was not of the CS type that's, to make the point, fuck'n weird.  She was, in fact, perfectly normal and intelligent. 

A twenty-nine year old plumber from Manchester with plenty of other interests, Gemma left on her trip last September and was actually heading home in a day or so.  She left from Manchester and traveled all the way to Asia by train, stopping and staying along the way in various locations, mostly winging things.  Off the top of my head she said she stayed in Russia for a month, Mongolia for a month, China two months, I think South Korea for I'm not sure how long, Laos for a few weeks, and Myanmar for three weeks.  She travels solo but pairs up with others travelers when the chances arise.

We spoke of things we liked/didn't like of Thailand and the things we missed from back home.  

One was big speakers. Serious speakers.  The kind that fill your chest with bass and make your ears feel good.  That feel good feeling is probably the same mechanism that the 'addictiveness' of spicy food works through.  In both cases, your brain is easing pain with it's own pain killers.

That dug up from some moldering point in my brain my grand plan as of last fall.  That was, grind till summer and save my money, travel Europe and go to festivals, and then find a way to teach overseas -maybe in Asia- to see if a career as a teacher was a possibility.  I had forgotten that part of my intention to come here was to flip this plan on its head, grabbing a good thing before it was gone, and the sudden unearthing of the fact that I was living, and had been living, an idea I toyed with on the other side of the planet created a strange moment, a very surreal one.

We were going to take a cooking class but they were either all booked up or waaay expensive.  Since it was one of her final days she opted to splurge and take the waaay expensive class on Monday.  The class was highly, highly rated on the internet so it wouldn't disappoint.

Meeting Gemma flipped a switch in my brain to 'on' as the gears once again started turning in my head of the real possibilities of plans after Thailand.  

All I'm sayin' is....

 ....gonna be awesome

Anywho, the word the neighborhood ladyboy was getting me to say all week, phanpoon, meant boyfriend. 

Him: "Ahdahm...phannpoooon?

Me: "I...what?...I...is that your name you keep saying that"

Him: *points to self* "Ahdam...phannnpooon?"

Me: "phanpoon?"

Him: *points to self* "Ahdam...phannnpooon."

Me: "Yea, sure phanpoon, whatever I...phanpoon yea "

Him: lololololol

 

This fuckn' guy, lol.  Such a troll.

Black House - Baan Dam, dog meat, Thai wine, and two hours in Mae Sai

Last post I took y'all to Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple.  On Friday, the 3rd, I drove north about 15 kilometers from home to Baan Dam, Black House.  Unlike the temple, this is not a temple.  Also unlike the temple, this is really an outdoor art exhibit.  The common thread being that they're both striking and how they...contrast (hehehehehe).  Seeing one after the other really was an accidental logical idea as Black House is White Temple's antithesis.

Wat Rong Khun feels like a sacred place representing the balance of life and death, peace and violence, love and malevolence -the reality of reality.

Baan Dam feels like an unholy place where death is inescapable and was probably Thawan Duchanee's intent (the creator).

Before arriving all I knew about Baan Dam was there were 40 houses situated on the property, many of which closed to non-private tours, that contained pieces of art representing death through the art and architecture.  Many of the pieces are fashioned from animal parts.



After I walked through it all and snapped my photos I recorded a 20 minute video walking through much of the place.  And again it's going to take time to get the damn thing loaded.  My video of Wat Rong Khun finally loaded to youtube...and then I was told there was an error converting the file.  I prefer to load things at night too since it's cooler and I don't have to burden my laptop so much.

I'll let the pictures do the talking and I think the video does the place more justice than the pictures, but I'll leave you with some food for thought...

In Thailand, there is a craft of fashioning magnificent tables and chairs out of what I believe were once the base and beginning of roots of a very old and large trees.  They're beautiful.  While lollygagging through one of the buildings early in my exploration I noticed benches made of such trees inside one of the houses.  Also in this tiny building were gongs small and very large (9ft?), canoes, drums, large and small baskets, baskets I think that were for catching fish, and a few dead inflated and dehydrated blowfish, go figure.
 
"Hmm"  -I thought-  "even furniture can represent death.  We unwittingly surr-" As I'm turning my head to the left I come face to face with a drum.

I felt like such a clever s.o.b.

So just think about what you're looking and maybe something like that'll pop out at you.

Le Baan Dam Album

-------------------------

Afterwords I headed home, stopping at Makro to take a peek and see what's up.  Makro is Thai for Costco.

Then I went to the supermarket in the mall to pickup lunch/dinner stuff.  I noticed a white guy grabbing tons and tons of meat.

Me: "Heh, stock'n up?"

Him: *Gets kinda close, speaks kinda low* "Actually, it's for my dogs"

He then went on to make me very paranoid about my food choices.  I ended up just getting dehydrated beans to rehydrate and mix with rice to form a complete protein instead of buying meat.  Guy ruined my eff'n day and made me unreasonably paranoid.

I got back, ate some food, and started typing this up when Neung popped her head in.

Neung: What's good, wanna go to Mae Sai? (bout an hours drive north)

Me: When??

Neung: Now

Me: Now??

Neung: Uhhh (yes)

Me:

Neung:


Me:

Neung:

Me: Yea lets go.


Being in an AC'd car with somewhere to rest my back and head instead of flying on a moped was nice.  But I did notice how much longer it takes to navigate a city in a car.  Two-wheelers get to cut in front of cars at lights and that makes commutes much quicker.

In Thailand, on the side of the road you can buy quite a variety of things depending on the time of day, where you are, how far out from a town you are, and how major the road is you're on.  Over halfway to Mai Saiwe stopped at the side of the road to buy wine.  This ain't your reds and whites from home and it sure isn't rice whine either, it's an attempt at wine.  I don't know why they call it wine.  Not sure what the precise criteria is for wine so I can't make the call.

They had/have a strange smell.  Despite being made from fruit it lacks a fruity scent.  It isn't bad or offensive yet the odor makes me think of a drop of chlorine in a bucket of water -very sterile.  I think it may be the very freshly fermented smell of fruit.  The wine tastes just like that too (freshly fermented fruit) and naturally very sweet, fermented: strawberry, lychee, pick a word.  When I say you can taste it's fermented fruit that isn't to say it tastes bad, ya know like rotten fruit.

I got the feeling that the makers were on the right track but bottled the stuff before it became, ya know, real wine.  I also suspect that may have been on purpose since Thais love sweet stuff just about as much as Buddha.  All in all it aint the wine I'm used to but it's a nice drink to get a serving of alcohol, I'll say that.

There were 4 wines: Mulberry, Strawberry, Lychee, and another one I can't recall.  The strawberry and lychee were actually pretty good so I bought 2 bottles each, 75 baht a pop, 10% alcohol. 

Mae Sai is a little town sitting just on the border of Myanmar that was settled decades ago, or at least highly populated by, Chinese war veterans of a civil war (I think).  It's as Chinese as it gets without stepping foot into China.

In Mae Sai we wondered a bit and I picked up a pair of shorts and some food for nibbling.  One item being baked/roasted chestnuts. The vendors have these machines that swirl around bits of hot charcoal and the chestnuts get plopped right in until finished.  I guess I've never really had a chestnut and definitely not a tasty, cooked warm one.  So good...

We walked around a bit 'window shopping', met up with a friend of Neungs, got in the car and headed to a lil restaurant for a bite.  Driving around was neat, the streets were narrower and scaled down even more than than the other parts of

FYI Zebra tastes like white pepper

Thailand I've been to.   One of the first things I observed when I got to this country was that in the US buildings, shops, streets, ceilings...by comparison felt 'normal sized' and everything in Thailand felt like it was designed by a miniature golf course engineer.

For dinner I went meatless, just mushrooms and rice.  My earlier experience plus having seen some guy dump a bunch of loose trash in a river stifled my appetite.  Afterwards we dropped off her friend and headed back.

Neung drives fast.  Gone to plaid, fast.  Despite communication barriers watching her frustration when slow motorists didn't get out of the fast lane for her bridged the gap betwixt the cultures of East and West.  I too know that feeling and the exasperation that came after she flicked her blinker left to pass the car squatting in the right lane...

**Car blocking our Toyota traveling at warp speed**

Neung: Mumble mumble mumble

Then she's all like , in silence for a second.

She flicks the stalk behind the wheel upward for the left blinker bitterly

 *Something in Thai that was probably...*

Neung: ...*flick* ...mother fucker


 

Don't ask, I don't know

Wat Rong Khun

This morning I went to Wat Rong Khun (aka The White Temple) which is just 8 klicks down the road.  My speedometer and odometer now work.

Boy am I glad the temple is so close, I can't wait to go back and take more pictures.

Here's the wiki for it, to save me the time of just regurgitating something on the internet that already exists...

"a contemporary unconventional Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat. Construction began in 1996 and is expected to be completed 60 - 90 years after the death of the artist and designer.

Walking around you see buildings being erected, buildings being worked on externally, buildings being worked on internally, and then you get to the 'finished' buildings and you understand why it's going to take so damn long to finish!  The 'finished', as I called it, main building is still being developed inside (no cameras allowed).

The main building is simply unbelievable and the level of detail staggering.  I'll simply my life and say just look at the picture album I've uploaded rather than talk about it all ad nauseum.

Le Link

I also took a 1080p video walking through it all. It'll be up eventually, loading it is taking a very long time so I'll post it when it's done. 

I will say this, to enter the main building you must pass through what I infer to be hell, balanced on

either side by pillars representing good an evil.  After passing through hell you ascend steps to another bridge with dragons flowing of either side of you and the white...

My favorite part was hell, =P