neung, sawng, saam, cheeese!

Hello again from Bangkok!

more updates from orientation: yesterday, we visited the grand palace and the emerald buddha temple. beautiful! the entire complex is glittering with colored sequins and gemstones, gold panels, and, of course, buddhas. it was very, very crowded within the walls of the complex and on the surrounding streets, which were crawling with street vendors and little children trying to sell you purses, hats, umbrellas, and elephant keychains :)

as we tried to follow the little pink umbrella of our beautiful little tour guide, we strained to hear the sound of her meek voice.the 100000 degree heat was multiplied as it reflected off the tall golden cheddi (pear shaped towers. the grounds contain so many buildings so we tried to focus on just a few. at the base of every structure are figures of guardians, demons, several headed monsters, and monkeys, all glimmering and bejeweled!

eekkk too much description, more action. after our magical experience at the palace we went to eat lunch on the river in a floating restaurant. delicious food! best tom yum goon so far (spicy soup with prawns). all the while we watched these colorful skinny boats shoot over the water carrying, literally, boatloads of tourists.

orientation has been fun, very exhausting! its almost like being back in school, which i suppose is good considering we are going back to teach in just one week! the thai language classes are going well, but it is a very difficult language. there are five different tones, which means the word pa can be pronounced five different ways, which means i may think im saying tree, but i could be saying throw it away or dad in chinese. luckily i have the numbers down! neung, sawng, saam, sii, haa, hok, jet, paed, gao, sib!!! hooray.

and don't worry we are finding some culture as well. yesterday, after a hot, sticky adventure downtown, we returned to the hotel to have a welcome dinner complete with thai dancing. the women were so tiny and intricately dressed. even their eyelashes had jewels! this evening we took part in a traditional thai welcome ceremony. in candelight, we kneeled on the floor in front of our teachers as they tied a sacred string around our wrist. it was really something special.

school updates:
bad news:
sadly ouor coordinator was not able to attend the welcome dinner for personal reasons, but she will be picking us up and performing the 7 hour bus ride with us back to the school next tuesday! (insert awkward half smiling face)
good news:
1. I have a teaching buddy! His name is Reuven, and yes mom he's Jewish! SO quickly add his mother's number to your speed dial so you can call and fret to one another for the next 6 months.
2. There will also be two other girls in the Kalasin province (pronounced galasin by the way, dont ask me why). Danielle and Mandy will be teaching at separate schools but we will certainly become travel buddies.
3. Our school, Kalasinpittayasan is the biggest high school in the province, so we are to expect all the facilities. AND they have a separate english program, which means motivated students!

tonight we are heading into downtown bangkok in search of "wiskey chot" and "man thai" (shout out to the LUB D girls) ;)

pictures to come very soon!

xoxo
dena