Hello my friends and loyal readers,
My update comes about 24 hours earlier than normal. This is for two reasons. Firstly, due to Budhist lent, we have a 4 day holiday at school, which means nothing to do for Friday morning. Tomorrow morning, when I would normally do my blogging, theres a 7 am football match.... so I just thought it'd make sense to do my blogging today.
Just to clarify something.... I am not in Chiang Mai currently, nor have I been since 3 June. I spent about 36 hours there between leaving Bangkok and arriving in Mae Sot (a smallish town/city 6 km from the Myanmar border), where I have been consistently for the last 2 months, save for 1 day in Sukhothai. My school is technically not in Mae Sot, but in a village called Mae Pa 5 km away. Mae Sot is not a huge town, but isn't tiny either..... there's also a lot happening here that isn't advertised in any tourist brouchure (mostly due to the fact that it involves some sort of illegal activity). Mae Pa, however, is best described as a village, and it makes you feel as though you've been transported back several hundred years.... perhaps pictures will clarify this better.... and I will post pictures on facebook within the next couple of weeks.
One week from today, I will be going to Chaing Mai for a 4 day weekend, where I will meet my brother Matt and his wife Monica (some of my readers may have met Matt before, as he has visited me in Montreal on several occasions). For that reason, I will not be blogging for that weekend, and in all liklihood, I won't blog next week. Assuming thats the case, this is my 2nd to last blog update in Mae Sot.... meaning, for better or for worse, my time here is coming to a rapid end.
As you could imagine, I am very much looking forward to my long weekend in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai itself is not really spectactular (I think its wayyy overrated), but unlike Mae Sot, it is very much part of the 21st century, and unlike Bangkok, you can actually breathe! Of course, I'm mainly looking forward to this to see my brother, who, having a lot of money, plans on staying in an upmarket hotel. After staying in 2$ accomodation for the last 2 months.... it will be quite nice. Also, it will give me something to do over the weekend.... occupying my time on weekends has proved rather difficult for me, and I have no clue what Im going to do during this 4 day weekend (of course, it would be ideal if budhist lent were NEXT weekend, but nothings perfect).
Yet, I'm not 100% happy about this. Yesterday, I told my grade 9 students (a class with which I have fallen in love) that I will miss two days for the said reason, and I could see the disappointment in their eyes. Of course, its not something thats going to make them hate, or even think less of me, but it was obvious that some of them were slightly disappointed.
By this time, some of you are probably wondering about the first part of this blog's title. What? I broke my toe?? Yeah..... thats a funny story (for people who share my sense of humour at least). Last Saturday, actually shortly after writing my last entry, I had to do my 2nd day trip to Myawaddy, Myanmar for passport/visa reasons (in order to extend my 30 day stay in Thailand, i have to "leave Thailand" and come back). Since Myanmar is one of my favourite countries, much more enjoyable than the other said country (I wont be too specific, lest this entry get scrapped like the last time....), I was more than happy to oblige. So, I had finished the process of "leaving Thailand", and for some bizarre reason, foreigners are not allowed to bike over the Thai-Myanmar friendship bridge. No big deal... I'll just walk. Being the rainy season, the bridge proved to be rather slippery. And for some reason, the concrete sidewalk was occasionally replaced by 6-inch wide stripps of metal- which became EXTREMELY slippery. So, not entirely paying attention to the ground (the river is pretty interesting.... watching people trying to swim to Thailand, or watching Burmese woman do their laundry), I slipped and stubbed my toe rather bad, to the point where, within hours it became black and blue and disgusting..... not the best situation when I still had to ride teh bike 6 km back to Mae Sot. Oh well.... that didn't stop me from enjoying my stay in Myanmar. Since my last time in Myanmar, I have managed to pick up a bit of Burmese, and was able to go to the market and bargain in Burmese- and the burmese people love that. I bought some things.... got rid of some of my left over kyat (although they mostly take Bhat).
That about covers most of the excitement going on here. School is still the best part about being here- but even that's a mixed blessing. I don't particularly enjoy teaching grades 3 + 4.... my repitoire of things to do with them is quite limited, and most of them don't seem to learn very fastly at all.... although that could be because I'm not very good at teaching them. Grades 5 + 6 is a little bit better... a good chunk of the students very much understand and appreciate everything I teach them, yet so many of them don't understand a thing..... and they just sit there, fooling around, talking to each other, and dont pay attention. I have to tell them to be quite (in english and burmese) every two minutes, and its really strarting to frustrate me. However, I would gladly remain at the school JUST to keep teaching my grade 9 class.... such a thing is never a problem with them. They have impressed me beyond my highest expectations. For the first time, every single student got every answer on this weeks newspaper article, and they all finished it with 10 minutes to spare in the class (Doh Soe finished within 5 minutes.... with all the answers right!!!!). The dictation also went spectacularly.... 10/12 people got at least half the words right, and 8/12 got two-thirds!!! Am I a miracle worker, or am I just getting easier? Perhaps a little of both. Although I know they really appreciate me..... This may be stupid, but let me give an example. At the beginning of class, to all their Burmese teachers they kids say "Minglaba saya", and to the english teachers (ie the volunteers), they say "good morning, teacher". Within the past few weeks, they have shifted to saying "minglaba saya" to me... which makes me feel as though they respect me beyond the level of a half-serious western volunteer. Of course.... I don't want to overplay such a thing.
Although Karl has reemerged from obscurity (turns out he was violently ill for a whole week), I have still had the responsibility of teaching French..... although its one which Ive actually revelled in. Yes, my French is less than fluent, and I make plenty of small mistakes.... but so what. I've had fun teaching french just because its such a laid back atmosphere.... and in reality it doesnt REALLY matter if they actually learn the language. In other words, I dont really feel frustrated if they dont pick it up..... but some of them, have picked it up rather well. However, my tenure will shortly come to an end, as new volunteers from Switzerland are due to arrive any day now.
I suppose that's enough to conclude another week's update. I probably won't update next week, but if I truly feel compelled to do so, I will do it on Thursday. If, I have not yet updated by next Thursday, then I won't update until the following week, maybe around Wednesday the 8th? I can't be sure.... just check up every once in a while.
I miss you all. I send you all warm regards from Mae Sot, Thailand. Take care.
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